Cebu village chief held for guns, grenade, ammunition

Map of Cebu. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

CEBU CITY — Police arrested on Tuesday a barangay captain for alleged possession of a grenade, guns, and ammunition inside his residence in Boljoon town, south Cebu.

Elderson Han Baldezamo Mabalatan, the village chief of Baclayan, did not resist arrest.

Captain Amory Piedra Napoles, officer-in-charge of the Boljoon Municipal Police Station, said they went at 6:20 a.m. to Mabalatan’s house to serve a search warrant issued by Executive Judge Francis Rainer Navarrete of the Regional Trial Court in Argao town, Cebu.

Napoles said Mabalatan was accused of illegally possessing a .45 caliber pistol a violation of the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act.

Seized inside Mabalatan’s house were a hand grenade, two .45 pistols, a firearm hand grip, and four magazines of caliber .45, and 25 live ammunition.

However, Napoles said the subject of the search warrant, which was a .45 caliber pistol with serial number BB09402-11-246, was not found inside Mabalatan’s house located 103 kilometers south of Cebu City.

The operation was part of the Regional Simultaneous Anti-Criminality Law Enforcement Operations for 2023.

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