Police head ‘converting’ firing range into resort?

The provincial police director of Aurora province is in hot water following complaints that he is allegedly converting the firing range beside the police headquarters in Baler town into a private resort.

In a complaint sent to Philippine National Police chief Director General Leandro Mendoza, the Bantay Bayan Foundation-Agila chapter, said Senior Superintendent Moises Guevarra had the firing range bulldozed and fenced off last April allegedly for conversion into a resort.

The area sits on a 5,000-square-meter government lot at the back of Camp Ravina, the provincial police headquarters, on the coast of Barangay Sabang.

Joey Cabagnot, a member of Bantay Bayan, said the firing range had been the venue of marksmanship training and shooting competitions by Baler policemen and gun club members since 1996.

Cabagnot said the firing range should not have been bulldozed but instead improved to enhance the marksmanship of law enforcers in the province.

The shooting capability of policemen became an issue again in the aftermath of the bungled hostage-taking incident at the Philtranco bus terminal in Pasay City last May 31.

"Sa dinami-dami ng provincial directors ng Aurora ay bukod tanging si Col. Moises Guevarra lamang ang naghangad na mapasakanya ang lupa (Of the many provincial directors Aurora has had, only Col. Moises Guevarra has craved for the land to be his)," the Bantay Bayan alleged in its complaint.