Grenades, ammo seized in Quiapo building

MANILA, Philippines - Police raided Friday night a residential building in Quiapo, Manila following intelligence reports that a cache of firearms and explosives was stored there.

Eighteen persons, including seven minors, were rounded up, and two fragmentation grenades and ammunition for M-16 rifle were seized when policemen from the Station Reaction Group and the Barbosa police community precinct led by Chief Inspector Claire Cudal stormed the four-story building on Arlegui street.

The local police officers were backed up Special Weapons and Tactics and Explosives and Ordnance Division personnel.

According to Sta. Cruz police station chief Superintendent Nelson Yabut, a demolition crew was threatened by the building’s Armalite-wielding tenants, who refused to vacate the structure. The building is scheduled for demolition.

The station’s operations chief, Senior Inspector Arnold Ibay, applied for a search warrant from Regional Trial Court Branch 17 Judge Eduardo Peralta against some of the building occupants identified as Paul, Dennis, Joseph, Mark Anthony and Cayetano, all surnamed Maguddatu.

Yabut said the subjects of the warrant managed to escape during the raid, bringing with them the alleged cache of firearms and explosives.

Three of those rounded up – Antonio Maguddatu, Elmer Maguddatu and Reynaldo Pelaez – were found to have pending cases of murder, drug dealing, malicious mischief and physical injury before several courts in Manila.

One of the building tenants and an alleged deacon of the Iglesia ni Cristo, Virgilio Maguddatu, deplored the police raid and vowed to bring the incident to the INC leadership, according to Yabut.