Dismissed cop faces raps for failure to return firearm

CEBU, Philippines - A former police officer is facing charges before the Cebu Provincial Prosecutor's Office for not returning a government firearm he borrowed.

Former police officer Rodel Las Marias Palomar reportedly failed to return the firearm despite repeated demands, said PO3 Arnel Caramonte of the Regional Public Safety Battalion-7.

"That his absence gave me the impression that there was really something wrong with him and I was afraid that those items he borrowed might be used for any other purpose. That after several months of waiting for him to appear with those unreturned items but still he failed to do so it prompted me to make a demand letter addressed to him for the purpose of requesting him to surrender all the items he borrowed," the complaint reads.

Caramonte, who was the designated supply/logistics police non-commissioned officer of the RPSB-7, said that Palomar, a member of the Technical Support Platoon, personally appeared before his office at the Supply Section on November 5, 2013 to withdraw an M16 rifle and one short steel magazine with 20 rounds of live ammunitions since he was detailed as the team leader of the Alert Team 2.

The following day, Caramonte said he instructed Palomar to return all the items he borrowed but the request was not heeded.

"That respondent failed to return the borrowed items on the scheduled date for he was nowhere to be found after the tour of his duty. That he has incurred unwarranted/unauthorized absences and did not report any more for duty and consequently he was marked absent without an official leave by the higher office since then and his attention was called for him to report bit all gain futile results," he stated.

Caramonte said after several days of searching, he saw Palomar in his residence at Oppra Unit II, Barangay Kalunasan, Cebu City, and personally handed the demand letters.

However, he said Palomar ignored the demand letters until the decision of the administrative case against him for serious neglect of duty due to AWOL was issued on July 2, 2014.

Palomar was meted a penalty of dismissal from the service. — Mylen P. Manto/ATO (FREEMAN)