Gun raps vs Pangasinan mayor dismissed

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan, Philippines – The prosecutor’s office has dismissed due to a technicality charges of illegal possession of firearms which the police filed against the mayor of Agno town following the seizure of an M-16 rifle and several ammunition in his residence on Wednesday morning.

Mayor Jose Pajeta Jr. told The STAR yesterday that the case against him was dismissed after inquest proceedings were made following the raid on his house in the Agno town proper.

Seized from Pajeta’s house were an M-16 rifle Elisco, 252 bullets for M-16, 18 bullets for 60 caliber, 10 long magazine assemblies for M-16, and five short magazines for M-16.

Pajeta said he would talk to his lawyers for his next legal action. 

Senior Superintendent Marlou Chan, officer-in-charge of the provincial police, confirmed the dismissal of the case in a text message to The STAR yesterday.

Chan said they were still studying if they would file a motion for reconsideration.

Chan told Bombo Radyo Dagupan that he had yet to see a copy of the prosecutor’s resolution but was told that the firearm and ammunition confiscated from Pajeta’s residence were not included in the search warrant.

“They said the mayor surrendered the gun but I said why did he surrender it when policemen were already there in his house in the process of serving the search warrant, so I’m having this studied by our lawyers,” Chan said.

The subject of the search warrant was a carbine, but lawmen got an M-16 rifle with an expired license.

Chan also questioned why Pajeta did not sign a document when he supposedly surrendered his gun. 

He said he would ask lawyers of the Philippine National Police (PNP) on the legal remedies they are entitled to.

He added it depends on the appreciation of the prosecutor “but we in the PNP are looking at how to file cases on exceptional circumstances.”

Also on Wednesday morning, police teams also swooped down on the house of barangay captain Wilson Nivera of Gayusan and confiscated a .45 caliber, 14 bullets for 30 caliber, 12 bullets for 12-gauge shotgun, 20 bullets for M-16 rifle, seven bullets for .38-caliber revolver, 16 bullets for 30 caliber, 16 bullets for .45 caliber, two magazine assemblies for .45 caliber, and a magazine assembly for M-16.

Also raided was the house of one Ruperto Batalla, yielding a 9-mm viper 2, a magazine assembly for 9-mm, 22 bullets for 9-mm, six bullets for .38 caliber, and three bullets for .45 caliber. – With Jun Elias, Cecille Suerte Felipe