URBIZTONDO—This town’s mayor, Ernesto Balolong Jr., has been arrested after his house and other properties were raided by authorities in connection with the killing of former Lingayen Vice Mayor Ramon Arcinue and his wife, Zorahayda, and several other unsolved murders.

Joint elements of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Manila, Cabanatuan, Tarlac and Dagupan City with the Philippine Army conducted the raid on the house, piggery and poultry farms of Balolong on November 27 based on four search warrants issued Regional Trial Judge Bernelito Fernandez Jr. of Quezon City.

Pedro Roque Jr., NBI Pangasinan director, said Balolong has been brought to NBI Manila for further questioning on the 20 firearms, 12 of which are high-powered, and hundreds of ammunition confiscated in his residence and farms in Poblacion and Bayaoas.

“The reason for the raid was to recover those firearms which according to a witness under NBI custody were used in so many unsolved killings in Urbiztondo and other parts of Pangasinan,” Roque said.

BALOLONG

Balolong asserted that he has 18 licensed firearms and protested the raid.

After giving Balolong a chance to go with them willingly, NBI agents handcuffed him after he resisted arrest.

The NBI is conducting an investigation on at least five unsolved killings involving Otto Guialaludin, alias Boy Muslim, a native of Cotabato City, who was arrested by the NBI in November for the gun slaying of the Arcinue couple.

MASTERMIND

Roque said Guialaludin, a former bodyguard of Balolong, confessed to killing the Arcinue couple last year and being involved in two other high-profile killings in Pangasinan, that of Dante Untalan, a lawyer of the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), and Herminigildo Sabangan, a school principal in Urbiztondo.

Guialaludin reportedly confessed to NBI investigators in Manila that he is a top henchman of Balolong whom he tagged as the mastermind in several killings including that of the Arcinues, and that the mayor’s firearms were used in the crimes.

Balolong’s house has been previously raided in July 2012 by the provincial police but no case was filed against him as the firearms were reportedly licensed.

Ballistic examinations, according to Roque, will be conducted on the firearms to determine if any of these, whether licensed or not, was used in at least five unsolved killings so far recorded by the NBI based on Guialaludin’s testimony.

“I want to emphasize that the NBI National Capital Region is the lead investigator in all those killings that happened in Pangasinan and we are just assisting them and supporting all their endeavors here,” Roque told newsmen.

The NBI will file appropriate cases against Balolong. He will be initially charged with illegal possession of firearms and ammunition.

Illegal possession of firearms is bailable but murder is not.

Meanwhile, Mayor Robert Arcinue of Sual, elder brother of the murdered Arcinue, hailed the action of the NBI based on the statement of the confessed gunman.–with report from Eva Visperas

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