Teacher nabbed for bringing gun to church on first day of gun ban

CEBU CITY, Philippines — A part-time teacher of a government-owned university has been detained and is now facing charges for bringing a gun to a church on Jan. 10, the start of the election period gun ban.

Geofre Radoc, 51, has been detained  at the Carmen police station after he brought an unlicensed firearm to church to have it blessed on Jan. 10, the start of the election gun ban.

He is one of the five persons arrested in Cebu since Sunday for gun ban violation.

Radoc, a part-time teacher of Maritime Law, Naval Architecture and Economics at the Cebu Technological University (CTU) in Carmen, denied owning the 9mm pistol.

“The gun was not mine. I was just asked to have the gun blessed,” he said.

Radoc, a Navy soldier who was dismissed from the service, could not remember the face of the man who asked him to have the gun blessed at the church, saying “it was very dark” when the gun was handed to him.

Radoc dropped by the St. Augustine de Hippo church to hear the early morning Mass on Jan. 10 before heading to  his review for the teachers’ licensure exams.

Churchgoers, however, became alarmed when they noticed a gun tucked at Radoc’s waist. One of them sought police assistance.

After having the gun blessed, he walked out of the church but was instead accosted by the police.

On Tuesday, he was brought to the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office on Tuesday, for the filing of charges against him.

He was brought back to the Carmen police station where he will stay until the court issues an order, transferring him to the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center.  SFM