Pangasinan town mayor held by NBI for guns released

URBIZTONDO, Pangasinan—After almost a week of detention for allegedly keeping unlicensed guns, Mayor Ernesto Balolong Jr. was released on Tuesday and reported for work at the town hall here on Wednesday.

“I was cleared,” said Balolong in a news conference here. He said he was released from detention at a safe house of the National Bureau of Investigation in Manila.

NBI agents arrested Balolong on Nov. 27 for allegedly keeping unlicensed firearms and for his possible participation in the murder of a local politician and his wife in Manila last year.

But Balolong said after proving that all of his and his family members’ firearms were licensed, the charges were dropped. Another case—for allegedly resisting arrest—was

also dismissed, he said.

The only case he is facing now, he said, is tampering with the serial numbers of his firearms. The case has been filed in the municipal trial court here. He posted a total bail of P240,000, or P60,000 for each case.

Before Balolong was arrested, NBI agents from Metro Manila, Central Luzon region and Dagupan City, raided his house here. The raiding team seized 20 firearms, 12 of these rifles. Two of the guns are owned by his son, Councilor Voltaire Balolong, while three others are owned by his wife, barangay (village) captain Mirla Balolong.

“So they were able to see that all my guns were licensed, including four rifles, which they said had tampered serial numbers,” Balolong said.

He said he bought the four firearms even before he was elected mayor of this town.

“When there was a gun amnesty in 2005, I took these guns to the provincial police office’s firearms and explosives unit to have them licensed,” he said.

While there, he said, somebody suggested to him to modify the guns’ serial numbers by adding letters and numbers that he wanted.

“So I put there my initials ‘JB’ (for Jun Balolong) and ‘62,’ the year of my birth. And every year after that, I’ve been renewing the guns’ licenses,” Balolong said.

He also denied participation in the killing last year of former Lingayen Vice Mayor Ramon Arcinue and his wife, Zorahayda, in Manila.

Balolong was implicated by suspected gun-for-hire, Guialaludin Sacandal Otto, who was arrested in General Santos City early last month.

“I do not even know the Arcinue couple,” Balolong said.

Asked why he kept so many guns, Balolong said it was for his family’s and his businesses’ protection. At least four firearms were seized from his two piggery and poultry farms here.

“Political rivalries in our town are different. If you don’t have a gun, they can have you killed,” he said.

Balolong also dismissed insinuations that he was released because he was a member of the Liberal Party. “I was released because I did nothing wrong,” he said. Gabriel Cardinoza and Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Northern Luzon