CEBU CITY — A bodyguard of Mayor Vicente Loot of Daanbantayan town in northern Cebu was arrested for possessing two unlicensed firearms.
Jose Dupay, a 61-year-old retired police inspector, was detained at the Daanbantayan Municipal Police Station pending the filing of charges.
Senior Insp. Adrian Nalua, Daanbantayan police chief, said Dupay failed to present documents to prove that his two .45-caliber pistols were licensed.
He said the arrest stemmed from a tip received by the police past midnight of Tuesday that a man was spotted bringing a firearm in Barangay Malingin, Daanbantayan town, about 127 km north of here.
A police team went to the village. On seeing Dupay, they frisked him and found two firearms with six live rounds of ammunition.
Dupay identified himself as a bodyguard of Loot, but the police asked him to present documents to prove that the firearms were licensed.
When he failed to do so, the police accosted the suspect and detained him.
The Inquirer tried to reach Loot, but his cellular phone was out of coverage.
Loot had been earlier accused by President Rodrigo Duterte as protector of illegal drugs operations – an allegation that the mayor, a retired police general, strongly denied.
Last May 30, Loot was wounded in the leg when a firearm accidentally went off while inside the vehicle of Dupay.
Loot was about to leave the wake of a supporter in Barangay Lanao, Daanbantayan, about 8:40 p.m., when he sat on the gun, which accidentally went off.
Senior Supt. Manuel Abrugena, chief of the Cebu Police Provincial Office, said they would check if one of the two firearms recovered from Dupay was the one that accidentally set off by Loot.
Abrugena said he had already ordered Nalua to subject the two firearms to a ballistics examination. /atm