Cebu councilor’s adopted son gets 40 years for grenade possession

CEBU CITY—The adopted son of Talisay City Councilor Socrates Fernandez has been found guilty of illegal possession of a hand grenade and a gun.

Joavan Fernandez was meted out a maximum penalty of reclusion perpetua or up to 40 years imprisonment for illegal possession of explosive.

He will serve another six to 10 years in jail for illegal possession of firearms and for violating the election gun ban.

Joavan did not show any emotion when the verdict was read past 2 p.m. on Tuesday at the courtroom of Executive Judge Soliver Peras of the Regional Trial Court in Cebu City.

He kept staring at the floor even when Peras ordered his transfer from the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center in Cebu City to the Leyte Regional Prison, in Abuyog town, Leyte, where he will serve the penalty.

When interviewed by reporters after the promulgation, Joavan said he would consult with his lawyer on their next step.

“Mag-storya pa mi sa akong abogado. (I’ll talk with my lawyer first),” he told reporters as he was escorted out of the courtroom.

His lawyer George Bragat, who underwent an operation in his vocal cords, didn’t speak a word during the promulgation.

It was the second conviction of Joavan in three months.

Last February, Joavan and his five friends were found guilty of abducting and mauling two vulcanizing shop workers whom he suspected to have stolen the  spare tire of his father in 2008. Joavan was ordered jailed for  21 to 36 years.

In this case, the police found a hand grenade and a gun when they went to his house in Barangay Bulacao, Talisay City, southern Cebu to serve an arrest warrant issued by a municipal trial court after he failed to attend a court hearing for slight physical injury./rga