LOOT
Despite fearing for his life, former police general and now Daanbantayan Mayor Vicente Loot agreed to turn over his 13 firearms to the local police on orders of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG).
As of 8 p.m. yesterday, Loot was at the Daanbantayan police precinct waiting on Chief Insp. Petronilo Gracia, Daanbantayan police chief, to turn over his firearms.
Loot, one of the so-called “narco generals” named by President Rodrigo Duterte, refused to issue any statement to the media and instead asked his lawyer Neil Aaron Balili to speak on his behalf.
In a phone interview, Balili said they will ask the DILG to reconsider its decision and give Loot the chance to own guns in order to defend himself.
Loot, who received DILG’s order at 9 a.m. Tuesday, has until Sept. 1 to file a motion for reconsideration.
Leeway
“While we feel that the order to cancel his (Loot) permit to own guns is not yet final, we will abide by it immediately and send all his firearms to the nearest police station,” Balili told Cebu Daily News.
Aside from Loot, four other police officials named by President Duterte were retired Deputy Director Gen. Marcelo Garbo, a former Police Regional Office chief; Police Director Joel Pagdilao and Chief Superintendents Edgardo Tinio and Bernardo Diaz.
Gracia is expected to turn over Loot’s firearms to the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) for safekeeping.
Chief Supt. Noli Taliño, PRO-7 director, on Tuesday said Loot texted him and promised to let go of his firearms that include .45 and 9 mm caliber pistols.
“We gave him until today (August 23) to turn over his firearms. He earlier asked for a leeway because he was out of town to attend to the wake of his brother who died last week,” Taliño said.
Stripped of authority
Balili said they are harnessing their legal arguments to convince DILG not to cancel Loot’s permit to own guns.
“In the Philippines, there is no constitutional right to bear arms, and the Philippine National Police (which is under DILG) can easily cancel permits to own firearms,” he said.
“In Loot’s case, however, we find it unfortunate because he’s an elected official. Under the Local Government Code, he is tasked to implement law and order, and as a municipal mayor, he needs proper security,” the lawyer said.
Not allowing Loot to own and carry firearms, he said, will put the mayor’s life in danger.
“He has already been stripped of authority over the local police, and now here comes this development. This will surely affect his performance as municipal mayor,” Balili said.
Consideration
He said he read various comments and posts on Facebook, calling for the death of all those mentioned as drug coddlers by President Duterte.
“It’s clear that the life of Loot and his family are in danger. He deserves consideration (from DILG) so he could secure himself and maintain law and order in the place under his jurisdiction,” he said.
Still, Balili said they are happy that some people from Daanbantayan volunteered to secure the mayor.
In canceling Loot’s license to own guns, the DILG cited three resolutions passed by the Firearm and Explosives Office License Revocation and Restoration Board of the PNP Headquarters in Camp Crame.
But Balili said the order does not state the factual basis of the revocation.
“We are still trying to get copies of the resolutions cited. But in any case, we will abide by the order of the PNP,” he said.
Early this month, the National Police Commission (Napolcom) also removed Loot’s authority over the police in his town after he was named by President Duterte as one of five generals allegedly involved in illegal drugs.
Wayward
In a press conference at Malacañang last Monday, Interior and Local Government Secretary Ismael Sueño said they are also conducting a lifestyle check on Loot to find out whether or not the mayor’s assets are proportionate to his income.
In 2009, Loot was subjected to a lifestyle check by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).
But the case lodged against him at the Ombudsman was eventually dismissed last year for lack of evidence.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is doing its own investigation against the “narco generals.”
“We are working on our own to get evidence against the ‘narco generals’,” Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II said in a text message to reporters yesterday.
In naming the former and incumbent police officials, Duterte said he is pained that the generals were educated in the country’s premier military school funded by the people’s money, and yet they went wayward./With an Inquirer report