Mayor on drug list gives up 12 of 14 guns

CEBU CITY — Daanbantayan Mayor Vicente Loot on Wednesday turned over to the local police 12 of his 14 firearms after their licenses were revoked by the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

Two other guns could not be located by the mayor, a retired police general who had been accused of being a drug protector.

Chief Insp. Petronilo Gracia, Daanbantayan police chief, went to Loot’s house in the town to claim the firearms.

Among the firearms Loot surrendered were six pistols, five rifles and a shotgun.

Gracia, accompanied by some policemen from Daanbantayan, transported the firearms to the regional police’s Firearms Explosives Security Service Agency and Guards Supervisory Section (Fessags) in Cebu City, about 127 kilometers away.

They arrived at the Fessags office past 5 p.m. and immediately conducted an inventory of the firearms in the presence of Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, police director for Central Visayas.

Taliño said Loot must look for the two missing firearms and turn them over.

Taliño said if the mayor could not locate the missing guns, “he might as well submit a report why these guns are missing.”

Loot’s lawyer, Russel Pernites, said his client would do his best to locate the firearms.