MANILA, Philippines -- Police released late Friday the mayor of a town in Aurora whom they had taken into custody along with his aides and a bodyguard, after high-powered firearms were found in his vehicle in Quezon City.

Superintendent Franklin Moises Mabanag of the Quezon City Police District?s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit said Victorio Briones, 49, and the others were released on condition they would return with the documents for the firearms.

Briones, mayor of Dilasag town in Aurora province, his aides Reinaldo Dacuscus and Bayani Llana, and bodyguard Police Officer 1 Allan Llobia were taken into custody Friday afternoon.

Found in the mayor?s Toyota Land Cruiser were two Armalite rifles, a 9-mm and a .45-caliber pistol. The vehicle was parked in front of a restaurant on Banawe Street.

The mayor told police the .45-caliber pistol was his and that he would return with the papers showing it was licensed.

Mabanag said only one of the Armalites and the 9-mm pistol had cover documents. The bodyguard allegedly owned the other firearm in question.

?We will give them until next week to present the documents for the firearms,? Mabanag said.

?If by then they have not given us the documents, then we might charge them with illegal possession of firearms,? he said.

Police said a concerned citizen alerted them to the firearms in the vehicle.

The mayor and his party did not resist arrest and explained the firearms were for the mayor?s protection as he had supposedly been receiving death threats.