Crame worker caught with stolen arms cache

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), police and military intelligence agents arrested a suspected gunrunner in Caloocan City and seized a cache of firearms stolen from the Philippine National Police (PNP) regional headquarters in Cagayan de Oro City.

NBI Director Nestor Mantaring told reporters yesterday Reynaldo Victorino, 43, alias Lando, who works as a janitor at the PNP headquarters in Camp Crame, will be charged with illegal possession of firearms and ammunition before the Caloocan City Prosecutor’s Office.

Seized from Victorino were 88 .38 caliber revolvers and nine M-16 Armalite rifles, placed in three crates supposedly bound for Camp Crame from the Northern Mindanao police headquarters in Cagayan de Oro City, he added.

The NBI has launched a manhunt against other suspects, who remain at large, Mantaring said. He identified them as Romulo Tuscano, chief of the PNP’s Supply Accounting and Monitoring Division in Camp Crame; Senior Police Officer 1 Gerry Manuel Revecho, who is detailed at PNP headquarters in Camp Crame; and Bobby Suarez and Nelia Palomaria, owner of the Aggressive Gun Shop on Santolan Road, Quezon City.

The PNP will file graft charges against the PNP personnel involved.

NBI investigations showed that the syndicate is allegedly composed of active and former policemen selling high-powered firearms through Victorino.

An NBI informant said the weapons were declared as unserviceable and diverted to the syndicate’s hideout.

Victorino had access to the firearms shipment, including its cargo papers in Cagayan de Oro City, the informant added.

The NBI said Revecho, who also had access to the cargo papers, was Victorino’s accomplice in diverting the firearms.

The syndicate sells .38 caliber revolvers for P2,000 each;  9mm or .45 cal. pistols for P5,000 each; M-16 Armalite rifles and M-14 rifles for P20,000 each, the NBI added.

A poseur-buyer, who was able to buy 10 .38 caliber handguns from Victorino, said the names of some policemen were found marked on the firearms.

Thereafter, the poseur-buyer was instructed to place an order for 110 handguns and 15 high-powered firearms.

Victorino set the sale on Nov. 12 at his home in West Crame, just behind the PNP headquarters. At the agreed place and time, he met the poseur-buyer and an undercover agent, who posed as an operations manager of a security agency.

Victorino then led the poseur-buyer to his vehicle, a blue Toyota Lite, where he showed some of the firearms. They proceeded to a house in Capitol Park, Barangay Calamansian, Caloocan City, to get the rest of the firearms.

In the backyard of the Caloocan City house were three crates containing the remaining firearms for sale.

When the poseur-buyer handed Victorino the money, NBI agents placed him under arrest. Victorino told the NBI that he was only a “seller.”