A government prosecutor has ordered the release of a councilor of Bacong, Negros Oriental pending further investigation on the charges of illegal possession of firearms filed against him and two of his workers.
Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Ramon Antonio Vicente Rocamora explained that while respondent Bacong Councilor Jason Laure claimed ownership of the weapons, responding policemen from Sibulan town did not recover the same items from him.
Instead, the high powered firearms were confiscated allegedly from the actual possession of Laure’s employees – Christopher Palalon, 37, married, of Zamboanguita town and Renato Belocora, 25, single, of Barangay Nangka in Bayawan City, all in Negros Oriental.
The three were arrested Tuesday evening at a quarry site in Barangay Looc, Sibulan following a call from a concerned citizen who said armed men had fired their weapons.
The police recovered from Palalon a caliber .223-5.56 mm firearm with a magazine containing 29 rounds of live ammunition and a KG-9 mm sub-machine gun loaded with a magazine with 23 rounds of live ammunition from the other suspect, Tubog.
Prosecutor Rocamora conducted the inquest proceedings Wednesday afternoon after the arresting complaint against the three suspects.
While Councilor Laure had walked away from detention immediately after the complaint was filed and after the inquest proceedings, Prosecutor Rocamora said this does not mean that he is “scot-free”.
The prosecutor explained that the counsel of the accused, Rodrigo Icao, had raised the validity of the arrest, noting that Laure, who “professed to be the owner of the firearms claims he is legally entitled to possess the same having the mission orders”.
The mission orders being referred to were two documents issued by the intelligence officer of the 11th Infantry Battalion of the Philippine Army based in McKinley, Guihulngan City, about 100 kilometers north of this capital.
“It would appear that the proper charge for Laure will be under Paragraph 5, Sec. 1 of PD 1866 as amended where a person allows another person to use it,” said Rocamora. This specifically points to a person in possession of a firearm or firearms to allow another person or persons to use the same.
The argument of defense, according to Rocamora, was that since the two other accused are still being charged and not yet found guilty, “it would seem that charging Laure would not be proper yet.” (PNA)
