Loose firearms confiscated from father, son in Adlaon

A former anti-communist cadre was arrested by members of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-7 after assorted calibers of high and low powered firearms were seized from his house and his son’s in sitio Agbagon, barangay Adlaon last Wednesday.

Mauricio Dionson, 66, a farmer, was arrested after he became the subject of a search warrant along with his son Judito for alleged possession of unlicensed firearms.

Sr. Insp. Richard Caballero and his team conducted the raid by virtue of the search warrant issued by Regional Trial Court Branch 15 presiding Judge Fortunato de Gracia against the two.

Police found in Mauricio’s house were a .30 caliber bolt-action rifle with 55 live bullets and a homemade .38 caliber revolver with 15 live bullets. The raid on Mauricio’s house was witnessed by two barangay tanods.

While in the house of the younger Dionson, the police who were accompanied by Adlaon barangay captain Nieves Nara and Lupon ng Tagapamayapa officials as witnesses found one U.S. Carbine caliber 30 M2 rifle with serial number, a homemade .45 caliber pistol, four magazines for the caliber 30 M2 US Carbine and 30 live ammunitions of said caliber, and three magazines for the .45 pistol along with 12 live bullets.

Judito was not in the house when the police arrived and conducted the search.

Mauricio failed to show pertinent papers of ownership and licenses for these firearms, police said.

“We received information that these two are illegally possessing high powered firearms. They claimed that they were former members of the anti-communist terrorist cadres but were not able to surrender their firearms to the government,” Caballero said.

Caballero also said that they received a phone call from a concerned citizen informing them about loose firearms being kept by the two, hence the operation. The two were not in anyway members of criminal groups in the area, except for being former anti-communist cadres.

Mauricio who asked not to be photographed for security reasons said he has never used these firearms. He explained he just bought the US Carbine at P9,000 for protection purposes during the height of the communist insurgency in their barangay where communist rebels allegedly frequently harassed civilians.

Nara told reporters that she never heard the suspect and his children got involved in any trouble in her barangay. She also supported the claims of Mauricio that back in the 80s, rebels would always frequent their barangay and harass the residents, prompting farmers to arm themselves.

Police are set to file violation of Republic Act 8294 or illegal possession of firearms and ammunitions against the father and son. — Edwin Ian Melecio/MEEV