Cop, 3 others yield assorted guns in Batangas raids

BATANGAS CITY, Philippines— A team of policemen from Lipa City and Calabarzon regional police command arrested a policeman and three other people found keeping assorted unlicensed firearms and hand grenades in simultaneous raids on their homes in Lipa City on Saturday morning.

Superintendent Jacinto Malinao, Lipa City police chief, identified those arresrted as Police Officer 1 James Aaron Sabillo, a suspect in the killing of a person and wounding of four others last April; Conrado Sabillo, an uncle of James Aaron;  Robert Icaro;  and Jesus Cepres.

Malinao said the city police and the Public Safety Battalion-Special Weapon and Tactics team of the Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) police swooped down on the houses of James Aaron and the three others, all in Lipa City’s Barangay Mabini, at around 6 a.m.

Police seized from them two hand grenades, a .45 caliber pistol, a .22 caliber gun, and an M14 rifle, as well as ammunition.

Malinao said James Aaron Sabillo, who is assigned to  the Batangas Provincial Police Office, is a suspect in a shooting incident in Mabini last April 28 that left one person dead and four others wounded but was not arrested in the absence of evidence to pin him down.

Conrado and Icaro were  linked to a separate murder case last February, he said.

Malinao said they started the surveillance operation on policeman Sabillo and his cohorts following the April 28 shooting incident but the police have yet to determine if James Aaron and the others belonged to a gun-for-hire group.

Malinao said the suspects were detained at the Lipa City police jail.