CA stops PNP general’s suspension over rifle anomaly

MANILA, Philippines - One of the five suspended Philippine National Police (PNP) generals tagged in the anomaly involving some 1,004 AK-47 rifles that were allegedly sold to the New People’s Army (NPA) has secured temporary relief from the Court of Appeals (CA).

Chief Superintendent Regino Catiis was able to get a 60-day temporary restraining order (TRO) from the CA’s 10th Division against the preventive suspension issued against him and 12 other PNP officials by the Office of the Ombudsman in November last year. 

In a resolution promulgated last Jan. 12 but released only yesterday, the CA granted the immediate relief sought by Catiis in his petition assailing the ombudsman’s order. 

The court specifically directed the ombudsman and the Department of the Interior and Local Government “to desist from enforcing the suspension order issued on Nov. 26, 2014” but required Catiis to put up a P100,000 bond.

Associate Justice Isaias Dicdican, in the ruling, stated that applications for gun licenses to cover the missing firearms were filed weeks after Catiis had transferred to the PNP’s Directorate for Comptrollership.

Catiis used to head the licensing division of the PNP’s Firearms and Explosives Office (FEO).

Associate Justices Elihu Ybañez and Carmelita Salandanan-Manahan concurred in this ruling. 

The TRO allows Catiis to return to his post in the PNP’s Directorate for Comptrollership.

Catiis was one of the five PNP generals suspended for six months by the ombudsman pending probe over the alleged AK-47 firearms anomaly. The other four were Directors Gil Meneses and Napoleon Estilles and Chief Superintendents Raul Petrasanta and Tomas Rentoy II.

According to PNP records, the FEO released the 1,004 rifles after incomplete or falsified applications were filed by the Caraga Security Agency.

According to earlier reports, the PNP’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group verified that firearms matching the serial numbers of the rifles issued to the security agency were recovered during encounters between the military and NPA rebels.