Cops nab 2 for violating gun ban in Cordillera

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet  – Two “men” working for an Abra town mayor became the first gun ban violators in the Cordillera region.

Cordillera police director Chief Supt. Benjamin Magalong said Reynaldo Baruela, 49; and Jun Palecpec, 51; both of barangay Malapa-ao, Langiden have been arrested by policemen led by Supt. Mario Mayam-es and Supt. Virgilio Pascua  and seized from the suspects two caliber 45 pistols at a barangay fiesta in Langiden town on Sunday.

The duo are “men” of Langiden town, Abra mayor Noel Castillo, formerly Abra province’s provincial jail warden.

Magalong said policemen who were tipped off about the duo, sealed all exits and succeeded in trapping both while they were about to elude arrest.

The duo were the first to fall in the gun ban operations in the province and all over the region ahead of the 2013 polls.

This as Cordillera policemen intensified their mobile checkpoints as early as the first week of December,  said Magalong.  “We have an average of 52 checkpoints a day,” the police officer said.