Raid on Abra mayor’s house yields shotgun

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — Police seized several high-powered guns during raids on three houses in Abra, including one owned by the woman mayor of Lagayan town, last weekend.

Chief Superintendent Noe Wong, Cordillera police director, said the Abra police and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group confiscated two caliber .45 pistols, a caliber 9-mm pistol, three holsters, four magazine assemblies and 28 caliber .45 bullets, a camouflage pouch bag, and 13 caliber 9-mm ammunition from the house of one Triump Donato Jr. in Pulot, Lagayan town.

The house of a certain Walsi Andres, also in Pulot, yielded an improvised pistol, a 12-gauge shotgun and ammunition, while a 12-gauge shotgun, 15 bullets and an ammunition belt were found in the house of Lagayan Mayor Cecilia Seares-Luna.

Wong said the raiding team was armed with search warrants issued by Vigan City Municipal Trial Court Judge Francisco Ante Jr.

Since January last year, the police have seized a total of 127 loose firearms. Almost a hundred people are now facing charges of illegal possession of firearms in different courts in the region. — Artemio Dumlao