URDANETA POLICE GUN SCANDAL

 

URDANETA CITY—Only eighteen of the 41 missing hand guns in the armory of the Urdaneta City Police have so far been recovered with 23 others still unaccounted for, the Pangasinan Police Provincial Office (PPPO) reported.

The last to surrender one of the missing Pietro Beretta 9 mm Parabellum pistol with one magazine at 8:55 a.m. of January 3 was Leonardo Idos Francisco, a village councilor of Bayaoas, Urdaneta City.

Those missing included Beretta and Glock pistols, both standard issued firearms of the police.

Francisco told the Urdaneta City Police that the firearm was mortgaged to him by Barangay Chairman Mariano Loquiao of Dilan-Paurido sometime the last week of November.

The surrendered firearm had a defaced serial number but was verified to be a PNP property.

Francisco is temporarily detained at the Urdaneta City Police Station for further investigation while the surrendered firearm has been submitted to the investigation section of the Urdaneta City Police Station (UCPS) for custody.

P/Supt. Jackie Candelario, deputy police provincial director for operations, said 17 of the 41 missing firearms were already surrendered to the police by different persons, particularly businessmen, since December 24, 2016.

Some of the businessmen confirmed that the handguns were either sold or pawned to them by policemen whose names are still being withheld.

Investigation of the missing hand guns in the armory of the Urdaneta Police is being conducted jointly the Pangasinan Police Provincial Office and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) on order of Police Regional Office 1 Director Gregorio Pimentel.

This after the National Police Commission (Napolcom) regional office conducted an inventory of firearms in the custody of the Urdaneta Police last December 8, 2016.

Nine personnel of the UCPS, eight of them organic members of the Philippine National Police (PNP) and a civilian employee were relieved of their posts and now undergoing investigation in connection with the missing firearms.

All of them were ordered to report to the Pangasinan Police Provincial Office in Lingayen where they are now restricted to quarters.

These reportedly include past and present logistic officers of the UCPS.

Meanwhile, a janitor of UCPS is now under investigators after admitting that he sold some of the missing firearms to different persons. (Leonardo Micua)

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