POLICE FILES

GUARDS, GUN OWNERS JOIN ‘MUZZLE-TAPING’

SECURITY guards and private licensed gun holders joined the Lapu-Lapu and Mandaue City police in a simultaneous gun-muzzle taping yesterday.

The muzzle-taping is part of the police’s campaign to reduce the cases of stray bullet-related injuries during the Christmas and New Year’s celebrations, said Senior Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, chief of the Lapu-Lapu City police.

Around 50 policemen in Lapu-Lapu City joined the activity.

Operatives of the Mandaue City police also taped the muzzle of their service firearms around 2 p.m. yesterday.

Security guards detailed at Parkmall in Mandaue City also had their guns taped.

Joselito Saraosos of Negrensee Security Agency said with their guns taped, they will avoid using their guns as much as possible when responding to an alarm.

Businessman Carlito Arabis, a licensed gun holder for two years, said joining the activity is his way of sending a message to other gun owners to take extra care to avoid gun-related accidents.

“It will ensure that policemen will not use their firearms in illegal activities,” said Chief Supt. Marcelo Garbo, director of the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7).

Garbo said operatives of special intelligence units were excluded from the muzzle-taping so they could respond to alarms during the holidays.
“If the tape used to seal the guns was broken, it means the gun was used,” said Garbo in a press briefing yesterday at the PRO-7 headquarters.
Policemen who will be involved in indescriminate firing will face appropriate charges, warned Garbo.

Garbo said the tape will be removed on Jan. 2. /Correspondents Tweeny M. Malinao and FE MARIE D. DUMaBOC

BURGLAR HITS VICE-MAYOR’S HOUSE

A HOUSE owned by Toledo City Vice-Mayor Arlene “Daydee” Zambo was burgled in barangay Kasambagan, Cebu City.

Stolen were a Blackberry phone worth P17,000 and the wallet of Zambo’s daughter Alyssa containing P2,000 cash and  ATM cards, police said.
Alyssa, 18, told police that she was awakened by a noise past 5 a.m. Wednesday.

Alyssa shouted for help when she saw a man inside her room. The intruder hurriedly ran out of the house.

Househelpers tried to chase the thief but failed to catch him.

Alyssa later found out that some of her belongings were missing.

Police said the thief entered the house in Roga Subdivision through a glass sliding door at the ground floor.

The case will be investigated further, police said./Correspondent Tweeny M. Malinao