Ex-optometrist tagged in gunrunning eludes QC cops

Joselito Sanga. Photo from QCPD

HOME ARSENAL The firearms, including Airsoft rifles. Photo from QCPD

Complaints of illegal possession of firearms and ammunition and possession of illegal drugs are set to be filed against a former optometrist who eluded arrest when his house was raided by the police on Wednesday.

Suspected gunrunner Joselito Sanga, whose alleged cache of firearms included Airsoft guns, managed to escape before a search warrant could be served at his house at 43-E N. Domingo Street, Barangay Valencia, according to the Quezon City Police District (QCPD).

Members of the District Special Operation Unit (DSOU) conducted the raid around 7 a.m. on a warrant issued by Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 97 Judge Bernelito Fernandez.

QCPD director Senior Supt. Guillermo Lorenzo Eleazar on Thursday presented to the media the firearms found at Sanga’s residence, including a .45-caliber and a .22-caliber pistol, three Airsoft rifles, three silencers and a smoke grenade.

Eleazar said sachets of “shabu” were also found inside the house of Sanga, who he said was a known drug user in the area.

The QCPD earlier received information that Sanga was involved in gunrunning activities and was keeping several firearms at home.

Sanga, who lives alone but has a sibling for a neighbor in the compound, was last monitored to be at his residence the night before the raid but was nowhere to be found when the police arrived the next morning. He remained at large as of press time on Thursday.

The DSOU said Sanga was from a well-off family who owned the vast property where his house was located. Investigators said he was an optometrist who had already stopped his practice. —MARICAR B. BRIZUELA/rga