Ex-barangay captain falls for gun possession

CEBU, Philippines - A former barangay captain of Manipis, Talisay City was arrested after he yielded two unlicensed firearms early morning yesterday in his residence in the mountain barangay.

Leovildo Togonon, 65, who last sat as the barangay captain in 2007, was arrested by virtue of a search warrant after a shotgun, a .9mm pistol and several ammunitions were recovered from his possession.

Joint operatives from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-7 led by Chief Insp. Rene Kyamko, the Special Reaction Unit of the Cebu Provincial Police Office and the Regional Intelligence Division conducted the arrest 6 a.m. yesterday.

The teams went inside the house of the suspect to serve the warrant issued by Judge Soliver Peras of the Regional Trial Court Branch 10 and were able to recover the shotgun with 12 bullets and the .9mm pistol with 20 live ammunitions.

The suspect however accused the city’s Vice-Mayor, Allan Bucao, as the one who is responsible for his arrest.

Togonon, who is the current head of the Agrivet Rural Technology Hilly Upland Resources (ARTHUR), an organization of farmers in Manipis, claimed that last week they reported the alleged illegal logging and kaingin system done by two reported men of Bucao that led to their arrest.

Bucao allegedly called the police station the time Togonon’s group reported the illegal activity.

The former barangay chief said that the .9mm pistol was only handed over to him by his son whose friend, a taxi driver, recovered it. The shotgun, on the other hand, was already sort of destroyed which allegedly made him decide not to turn it over to the police.

He allegedly kept it somewhere in the farm but took it inside his house last Friday for self defense as her daughter sent him a message through cellular phone to beware because a man, wearing a bonnet, was seen the previous day near their house.

The suspect also said that Bucao, who was head of the ARTHUR last 2009, is mad at him because he now sits as the ARTHUR head.

Charges for illegal possession of firearms and for violating the Comelec gun ban will be filed today against the suspect who is now temporarily detained at the CIDG-7 detention cell. — THE FREEMAN