ILOILO City – An incumbent village councilman was arrested on Saturday for violating the prohibition on firearms in line with the synchronized barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections.
Kagawad Jeffrey Arnaiz of Barangay Paliwan, Bugasong, Antique was the first barangay official caught violating the gun ban imposed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) this year.
Arnaiz was also the 19th arrested gun ban violator in Western Visayas a week since the gun ban started on April 14.
The Bugasong municipal police station took the 40-year-old barangay kagawad in custody.
Police Officer 2 Freeman Jaranilla, Bugasong police investigator, said they were making rounds at a dance hall at the Paliwan public plaza at around 1:50 a.m. when they spotted a gun tucked in Arnaiz’s waist.
Jaranilla said they frisked Arnaiz and recovered from him a .45 pistol.
At the time Arnaiz did not have a permit to carry firearms outside of residence or an exemption from Comelec, said the officer.
“He (Arnaiz) wasn’t causing trouble but he didn’t have an exemption from Comelec to be able to carry a firearm, so we arrested him,” Jaranilla said in a phone interview.
While Arnaiz knew there was a gun ban, he tried to justify carrying the pistol by saying he “uses it for self-defense,” said the policeman.
As of 2 p.m. on Saturday, police have seized 19 firearms and five deadly weapons across Western Visayas in line with the Comelec gun ban that started last week, Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) records showed.
Most of the seized firearms were from Aklan province (five). Others were from Antique (four), Bacolod City (four), Negros Occidental (two), Iloilo province (two), Capiz (one), and Iloilo City (one).
Police in Bacolod City seized two deadly weapons while those in Aklan, Antique and Iloilo City confiscated one each.
“Once again, we are calling on all gun holders not to bring their firearms outside of their residence” during the gun bun period unless they have an exemption from Comelec, said Chief Inspector Joem Malong, PRO-6 spokeswoman.
Police hope they won’t arrest any more gun ban violators, Malong said.
The firearms ban ends on May 21, or a week after the May 14 elections.
Until then, only police officers and government troops in proper uniform are allowed to carry firearms.
The bringing of deadly pointed objects such as knives is also prohibited.
Private security agencies and other government law enforcement agencies should get gun ban exemptions from Comelec or their personnel with guns would be arrested, Chief Superintendent Cesar Hawthorne Binag, regional police director, earlier warned./PN
