INQUIRER file photo
CEBU CITY – He said he did not know the gun ban was in force. On top of that, Jetlee Patayan could not show any license for his revolver, so he wound up in jail.
Patayan, 24, a resident of Mandaue City, was arrested for bringing his gun inside a videoke joint in Mandaue City at 12:30 a.m. on Saturday, half an hour after the gun ban went into effect nationwide in preparation for the October 28 barangay (village) elections.
Patayan, who was detained at the Mandaue City Police Station 3 cell, was the first person to be arrested in Cebu for violating the election gun ban.
Senior Police Officer 1 Gregorio Cabisares, desk officer at the police station, said they got a call from a concerned citizen at the joint that a man, clad in black shorts and a T-shirt, had a gun tucked in his waist. So, Senior Inspector Genilo Veraque, the station chief, and some of his men went to the videoke joint to check the report out.
When they entered the establishment, Patayan tried to pull out his gun but was immediately subdued and arrested, said Cabisares. Seized from Patayan was a .38-caliber revolver with five bullets.
Asked why he brought his gun to the videoke joint, Patayan claimed that he did it to protect himself because he had enemies. Besides, he added, he did not know that the gun ban had taken effect.
Cabisares said that since Patayan could not present a license for his gun, he would be charged with violation of the election gun ban and illegal possession of firearms.
Meanwhile, the Philippine National Police has identified 28 villages on it election watchlist for Central Visayas.
With the exception of one barangay in Siquijor, all were in Negros Oriental. None of the barangays in Bohol and Cebu were on the list.
A barangay is placed on the list if there is intense political rivalry, it has a history of election-related violence, or if the presence of armed men, either rebels or plain goons of the politicians, has been reported there.
During a recent Regional Joint Security Control Center meeting, Chief Supt. Danilo Constantino, chief of Police Regional Office in Central Visayas, said the number of villages on the watch list could change, depending on the police’s evaluation.
Most of the villages on the initial list where those were New People’s Army rebels were active while some were known to have intense political rivalries, Constantino said.
He added the police would be putting up checkpoints to ensure observance of the Comelec gun ban.
Brigadier General Francisco Patrimonio, chief of 302nd Brigade of the Philippine Army based in Negros Oriental who was at the meeting, urged candidates in the barangay elections to refrain from paying campaign fees to communist rebels.
Patrimonio said they should report any extortion attempt by the rebels to the authorities so that it would be stopped.
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