TRO issued vs revocation of mayor’s gun licenses

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – A judge has temporarily stopped the Philippine National Police (PNP) from revoking the licenses of 76 firearms seized during last month’s raid on the house of Pulupandan Mayor Magdaleno Peña.

Judge Manuel Cardinal Jr. of Bago City Regional Trial Court Branch 62 issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) last Friday on the cancellation of the licenses of the 76 firearms now in the custody of Bacolod RTC Branch 42.

The 76 guns were part of the 90 firearms seized from Peña’s house in Barangay Ubay, Pulupandan town during the raid last May 2.

The firearms are now the subject of a court case between the PNP-Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and Peña’s camp and his four companies that have claimed ownership of the guns.

The four companies – Golden Lake Mineral Resources Inc., JHMA Marin Holdings Inc., Kentfield Corp., and Vegas Exploration and Mining Corp. – filed last Friday a civil case seeking an injunction on the cancellation of the gun licenses with a prayer for a writ of preliminary prohibitory injunction and a TRO.

Named defendants were Senior Superintendent Jose Mario Meneses Espino, head of the CIDG’s Anti-Organized Crime Division; the Firearms License Revocation and Restoration Board represented by its chairman, Senior Superintendent Allan Parreño; and Chief Superintendent Raul Petrasanta, chief of the Firearms and Explosives Office.

In granting the TRO, Cardinal said it is without necessarily implying that the plaintiffs are entitled to it, but merely to preserve the status quo until the application for preliminary injunction is heard and determined.

Cardinal set the hearing for the application for preliminary injunction at the Bago RTC tomorrow.