POLICE operatives arrested a security escort of Daanbantayan Mayor Vicente Loot for alleged possession of two unlicensed guns.
Inspector Jose Dupay, a retired policeman, reportedly had a gun tucked in his waist and was holding another firearm while walking along a street in Barangay Malingin, Daanbantayan town, north Cebu past 2 a.m. on Tuesday.
Senior Insp. Adrian Nalua, chief of the Daanbantayan police, said a concerned citizen called him up and reported the matter.
“I, together with other policemen, went to the area to validate the report, and true enough, we found him (Dupay) in possession of two guns. I asked him to present any proof that he was a licensed gun holder, but he failed,” he said in an interview.
Seized from Dupay were two .45 caliber pistols with six live bullets each.
Charges of illegal possession of firearms are being prepared by the police against Dupay who is currently detained at the Daanbantayan Police Station stockade.
Senior Supt. Manuel Abrugena, director of the Cebu Provincial Police Office, said they will conduct an investigation to find out whether or not one of the guns seized from Dupay was the same firearm that accidentally hit Loot last May 30.
Loot, a retired general who was repeatedly implicated by President Rodrigo Duterte in the narcotics trade, just boarded a vehicle owned by Dupay when he sat on a gun, which he said, accidentally went off.
Loot sustained a gunshot wound on his left leg and was immediately rushed to the hospital for medical treatment.
Investigators have been looking for the gun since then.
Abrugena has directed Nalua to submit the two guns recovered from Dupay to the Regional Crime Laboratory for ballistic examinations.
Cebu Daily News tried but failed to reach Loot through the phone on Tuesday.
In an earlier interview, Loot said he had ordered another security aide to surrender to the police and to turn over the gun that accidentally went off immediately after the incident.
However, no one went to the Daanbantayan police to turn over the gun.