ISABEL, Leyte, (PNA) –- The town police has stepped up security measures at the port here after an old woman from Agusan del Sur was nabbed Saturday for carrying firearms.
Town police chief Insp. Randy Jongco said that some people trading firearms opted to pass through less congested ports in Leyte on their way to Mindanao from Cebu.
Jongco said they are also looking into bus transportation as an alternative method for firearms carriers. The official also called on for public vigilance to obstruct the transport of loose firearms that might be used this coming election.
Corazon Barola, a native of San Jose, Prosperidad, Agusan del Sur, caught the attention of the authorities when she used the passage for the vehicle instead of the passengers’ ramp of the ferry boat.
Barola was “carrying a big plastic bag, open plastic ware and shoulder bag when she passed through the vehicle exit instead of the passenger’s way which called the attention of the police team.”
Jongco recalled that policemen asked the old woman to open the heavy bag she was carrying and authorities found that it contains high-powered firearms.
“When she opened the bag, the protruding objects were found to be firearms, a 9 millimeter KG 9, covered by her clothing,” he said.
She was again instructed to open the plastic ware and shoulder bag where policemen also found firearms.
All in all, the authorities accounted from Barola’s possession two 9 mm caliber luger tec-KG9 made from Intratic Miami, Florida with magazine, two cal. 45 STI made from STI International Georgetown TX USA, one cal. 357 revolver Smith and Wesson and one cal. 22 Smith and Wesson.
The firearms were classified as class A that the suspect failed to show ownership documents.
Jongco said the woman claimed she bought the weapons in Danao, Cebu for sale in her hometown in Agusan that most of her clients are businessmen used for self protection.
Further, the suspect claimed that she avoided the heavy influx of passengers bound to Agusan during All Saints’ Day that she instead traversed in Leyte through the Pingag Ferry terminal in Isabel and scheduled to take a boat trip from Ormoc City to an undetermined destination.
It was her second time having the same transaction with the same route, Jongco added.
Barola was inquested at Ormoc City Prosecutor’s Office on Monday for violations of Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Law on Firearms and Ammunitions. (PNA)
JMC/SQM/ELVIE ROMAN ROA/EGR
