TWO active policemen wanted for several criminal charges were arrested by agents of the Philippine National Police-Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group.
PNP-IMEG director Brig. Gen. Warren F. De Leon identified the two as Pat. Edgar Lagaza Jr., a member of the Nueva Ecija Police Provincial Office, and Pat. Gabriel Fillone of the Police Regional Office 5’s Regional Mobile Force Battalion.
De Leon said that Lagaza was arrested on Thursday morning inside the Clark International Airport in Mabalacat City, Pampanga on the strength of a warrant of arrest for qualified theft and four counts of violation of Section 32 of Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulations Act of 2013.
Judge Leo Cecilio Bautista of the San Jose City Regional Trial Court Branch 38 issued the warrants of arrest against the policeman, who was charged following a complaint from Lt. Col. Marlon Cudal, a former San Jose City Police Station chief.
According to Cudal, the accused carted away four firearms turned over to him for safekeeping by the guns’ registered owners as a result of the PNP’s Oplan: Katok when the accused cop was still the Supply Police Non-Commissioned Officer of the police station. The theft of the firearms was discovered on February 23, 2022.
Fillone, 30, was arrested in an entrapment operation inside an MLhullier Pawnshop in Daraga, Albay.
Fillone was caught after he received the P250,000 cash he loaned from the Public Safety Savings and Loan Association Inc. (PSSLAI) using a fake PNP identification card past 5 p.m. last Wednesday.
Seized from the cop suspect were the P250,000 cash, an M. Lhuillier withdrawal slip, a fake Professional Regulations Commission ID, a mobile phone and his issued M-16 Galil automatic rifle with loaded magazine and bandolier.
Criminal charges for swindling/etafa in relation to RA 10175 or the Cybercrime Prevention Act of 2021 and falsification of public documents were filed against Fillone.
