A certain Khalid Panotolan, 20, a vendor, yielded about 1,000 assorted VCDs, some of which were suspected to be pornographic. He was arrested by a team led by Inspector Ronaldo Lumactod of the Special Weapons and Tactics (SWAT).
The arrest of Panotolan, who was formally charged in the Prosecutor’s Office for selling pirated VCDs, was made on orders of Mayor-in-charge Reynaldo Malonzo and city police chief, Superintendent Benjardi Mantele, Lumactod said.
Panotolan did not resist arrest when the raiding team pounced on him at around 4:20 p.m. on Tuesday as they confiscated the fake VCDs he was selling along the sidewalk in Bagong Silang, Caloocan City.
Lumactod said the raiding team could have seized more fake VCDs had the other vendors, who ran away to different directions, as the authorities approached, not escaped with their wares.
In separate operations, Malonzo, accompanied by Mantele and District Intelligence and Investigation Division chief Superintendent Dionicio Borromeo, also raided several establishments inside the Northmall Shopping Plaza in Monumento. Vendors selling pornographic VCDs, however, eluded arrest upon being tipped-off of the officials’ arrival, Borromeo said. – Jerry Botial