BACOLOD CITY , Philippines – The Philippine National Police (PNP) has cancelled and revoked the licenses of all 90 firearms seized from the ancestral house of Mayor Magdaleno Peña of Pulupandan, Negros Occidental, according to a police official.
Senior Superintendent Milko Lirazan, newly designated officer-in-charge of the Negros Occidental police, said the order came from PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima.
Lawyer Roger Reyes, Peña’s legal counsel, said revoking the licenses of the firearms does not erase the fact that when they were confiscated the guns were licensed, making the seizure an illegal act.
Reyes earlier said they would file a P60-million damage suit against the raiding team of the PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).
Peña’s firearms were seized in a raid on his ancestral house in Barangay Ubay Pulupandan last May 2 by operatives of the PNP-CIDG and Special Action Force on the strength of a search warrant issued by Judge Maria Filomena Singh of Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 85.
Twelve of the seized firearms were unlicensed, while the rest were registered to several corporations, according to the CIDG.