INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
LUCENA CITY — At least 315 persons had been arrested in Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, and Quezon (Calabarzon) for violating the gun ban and carrying deadly weapons, which are offenses during the recently concluded barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE).
The arrested persons, logged from Aug. 28 to Nov. 1, had been charged with violating the Omnibus Election Code that prohibits the unauthorized carrying or transporting of firearms and deadly weapons outside residences, businesses, and public places, the Police Regional Office-4A (PRO-4A) said in a report.
The ban on firearms and deadly weapons, which started on Aug. 28, will remain in effect until Nov. 29.
The law enforcers confiscated 219 assorted firearms and 17 “gun replicas” during the period.
The gun replicas are usually carried to instill fear among rival election candidates and their supporters, according to the police.
The police reported that 1,620 bladed weapons and contraband were also confiscated, 18 firearms were surrendered and 233 documented firearms had been deposited by their owners for safekeeping by local police stations.
During the same period, the police, Army soldiers, and Commission on Elections personnel put up 29,291 checkpoints in strategic areas across the region.
Meanwhile, the Police Regional Office 4A (PRO-4A) recorded only one election-related killing during the BSKE – the slaying on Sept. 5 of Erasmo Hernandez, 59, the chief of Barangay Poblacion Zone 10 in Taal, Batangas.
Hernandez, who was seeking reelection, was standing in front of the barangay office when two unidentified armed men arrived aboard a motorcycle and repeatedly shot him.
He died while undergoing treatment. Two suspects behind the killing were arrested the next day.
“It was politically motivated. The case has already been solved,” Lieutenant Colonel Chitadel Gaoiran, PRO-4A PIO chief told the Inquirer in a Viber message.
Brigadier General Paul Kenneth Lucas, PRO-4A director, described the BSKE in the region as peaceful and orderly.
“The dedication and tireless efforts of the members of the police force, other government agencies together with the support of the community, have contributed to a generally peaceful electoral process, allowing voters to exercise their democratic rights without major disruptions,” Lucas said in a statement.
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