Cop nabbed for stealing firearms from safety box
CEBU CITY –– A policeman was arrested by his colleagues on Thursday for allegedly stealing at least 12 firearms that were being kept for safekeeping inside the police station.
His colleagues accused Corporal Martilo Portugueza of selling some of the firearms surrendered by the owners to the police station while they were processing their expired licenses.
“One of the owners went to the station and asked for his firearms since he already completed the renewal of his license. But when we checked our safety box, the firearms were no longer there. That’s why I asked for a meeting of the custodians and did an investigation,” said Police Major Joemar Pomarejos, chief of Cebu City Police Station 2.
He said they later learned that the missing firearms were sold by Portugueza.
An errand boy of the police station told Pomarejos that he saw Portugueza take the firearms from the vault.
Portugueza allegedly told the errand boy not to mind his wrongdoing and that he would get a share of the proceeds from the sale of the firearms.
