Banana plantation owner nabbed for illegal firearms possession

NORTH COTABATO, Philippines - The police on Monday filed criminal charges against a banana plantation owner caught transporting a customized sniping rifle, a grenade and a handgun over the weekend in Magpet, North Cotabato.

The 32-year-old suspect, Zaldy Pareja, was immediately brought to the police station in Magpet after policemen, inspecting vehicles plying through a stretch of a highway in the municipality, saw a rifle muzzle protruding from piles of newly harvested bananas on the rear bed of his Nissan pick-up truck.

The policemen guarding the roadblock also seized from Pareja a live fragmentation grenade, a Colt .45 caliber pistol and high-end communication gadgets.

Magpet’s municipal police chief, Senior Inspector Felix Fornan, said Pareja could not present any document to prove the legitimacy of his ownership of the guns.

Fornan said it is also illegal for non-members of the Philippine National Police or any unit in the Armed Forces to possess or transport fragmentation grenades.

Fornan said investigators used the confiscated firearms and grenade as basis in prosecuting Pareja, who has a 5-hectare banana farm in Barangay Pangao-an in Magpet.