Police yesterday filed a string of charges against the 10 alleged members of a crime group who were arrested in the towns of Dalaguete and Alcoy, southern Cebu.
The respondents, who were in handcuffs, were taken to the Cebu Provincial Prosecutors’ Office past 10 a.m. yesterday for inquest.
They were accused of illegal possession of firearms and possession of illegal drugs based on the items taken from them during the simultaneous raids conducted by police last Saturday.
Mario Coronel, a resident of Nug-as, Alcoy, was separately charged for illegal possession of explosives.
Three of the respondents—Timoteo Amaca, Hermigildo Capala, and Erwin Amandoron—chose to undergo preliminary investigation so they will have the chance to refute the accusations hurled against them.
Assistant Provincial Prosecutors Ferdinand Collantes and Petronio Elesterio gave them seven days to submit their counter-affidavits.
Amaca, who is presently a councilman of barangay Nug-as in Alcoy; Amandoron, whose wife Riza is the barangay captain of Nalhug in Dalaguete; and Capala of Dalaguete were represented by lawyer Junjie Manda.
“We will be filing controverting evidence to prove the innocence of these three respondents,” Manda told reporters yesterday.
The other respondents, Vicente Asenjo, Randy Belda, Lucino Quivido, Michael Manriquez, Esteban Salonoy, Mario Coronel and Alvin Coronel, did not have lawyer to assist them when the charges against them were filed at the prosecutors’ office yesterday.
Police arrested the 10 respondents during simultaneous raids in Dalaguete and Alcoy last Saturday.
The respondents were purporteldy members of the Gañolon-Salonoy-Coronel Group whose leader, Jojo Gañolon, was killed by police after he purportedly tried to shoot members of the raiding team.
Gañolon’s two companions, Jelon Mercado and Lorenzo Coronel, were also killed.
According to police, Gañolon’s group was allegedly involved in illegal drugs, robbery, killings, rape, cattle rustling, and extortion in the mountain villages.
At least four members of the group eluded arrest.
Gañolon ranked number one in the list of most wanted criminal in the Province of Cebu.
Gov. Hilario Davide III, head of the Regional Peace and Order Council, earlier received reports about the illegal operations of the Gañolon-Salonoy-Coronel group.
Davide then called on Senior Supt. Noel Gillamac, chief of the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO), to conduct an investigation and operate against the group.
The provincial police applied and were granted 11 search warrants by Executive Judge Soliver Peras of the Cebu City Regional Trial Court that resulted in the arrest of the 10 suspects.
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