ILOILO City – Two residents of La Paz district suspected of engaging in arms trafficking were arrested on Thursday. Police seized homemade guns and a grenade from the house of Jennel Paderes and son Jinard in Barangay Baldoza.
The Padereses have turned repairing firearms – including homemade and Smith & Wesson-manufactured weapons – into a business, police claimed.
Senior Inspector Ariel Pico, La Paz police chief, identified the elder Paderes, 54, as an agent for the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) Region 6 in the 1990s.
Officers searched the suspects’ house at around 2 p.m. and recovered a machine pistol with ammunition, a .380-caliber pistol, a grenade, and assorted empty shells.
Citing intelligence information, Pico said the suspects were “fixing damaged homemade firearms owned by suspected guns-for-hire and riding-in-tandem [criminals].”
“They were selling homemade firearms, too,” the police official said.
But the suspects failed to show the police any license to possess firearms or business permit, said Pico.
Jennel Paderes and 28-year-old son Jinard were detained in the custodial facility of the La Paz police station.
The Padereses face charges for violation of Republic Act 10591, or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act.
An additional charge for unlawful possession of explosive – a violation of Republic Act 9156 – may be filed against them, too.
Judge Victor E. Gelvezon of the Regional Trial Court Branch 36 issued the search warrant.
Police are actively searching for unlicensed firearms in a bid to curb gun-related crimes and violence.
The Police Regional Office 6 is running after illegal gun owners in the campaign “Tokhang Kontra Ginadumili-an nga Pusil.”
Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, regional police director, believes recent shootings could be due to the abundance of loose firearms.
The PRO-6 said there are an estimated 77,000 loose firearms in Western Visayas and 18,000 of these are in the possession of criminals such as guns-for-hire.
Police are tracing firearms with expired licenses and whose owners failed to seek renewal. Officers would come knocking on the doors of these gun owners to remind them to renew their licenses.
Those in possession of unlicensed guns risk being charged with violation of the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act.
The law defines a loose gun as “an unregistered firearm, an obliterated or altered firearm, firearm which has been lost or stolen, illegally manufactured firearms, registered firearms in the possession of an individual other than the licensee and those with revoked licenses in accordance with the rules and regulations.”/PN
