The Philippine National Police (PNP) has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to disqualify a mayoralty candidate in a Masbate town.

Chief Superintendent Perfecto Palad, commander of the PNP Directorate for Integrated Police Operations in Southern Luzon, claimed that Ricardo Bulanon, who is running for mayor in San Pascual town, was not only implicated in some irregularities as provincial jail warden of Masbate but also for violating the nationwide election gun ban.

Bulanon, it was recalled, was collared in a checkpoint with a provincial jail guard in Barangay Tugbo, Masbate City during the first day of implementation of gun ban on January 10 after they yielded handguns.

“There is a reasonable ground for disqualification of the above-mentioned subject candidate (Bulanon) for the violation of RA (Republic Act 8294 (Illegal Possession of Firearms),” said Palad, citing a clarification made by the regional director of Comelec in Calabarzon area.

Bulanon is currently out on bail for the charge of illegal possession of firearms stemming from his arrest on January 10.

Aside from citing the case levelled against Bulanon, Palad also revealed that the latter has been the subject of investigation in connection with the involvement of a detainee in Masbate Provincial jail in kidnap-for-ransom activities in Metro Manila.

Palad was referring to Albert Choy who was among the four suspected kidnap men killed in a shootout with cops in Paranaque City last year.

Choy was supposed to be in the custody of the Masbate Provincial Jail at the time of the shootout after he was tagged as one of the gunmen in the shooting of Masbate City Mayor Moises Espinosa Jr. on August 10, 2001 in Masbate City.

Palad told the Comelec in a letter that Bulanon is liable for a case of infidelity in the custody of prisoner in connection with Choy’s questionable release.

The official said that it was only when Bulanon was confronted by police investigators more than two months after Choy was killed that he made a report that Choy slipped past his guards in Camarines Sur while he was being transferred to the Masbate provincial jail.

It was learned that Choy was supposed to be transferred to Masbate after he finished his jail term at the National Bilibid Prisons in Muntinlupa City for the case of illegal possession of firearms which led to his conviction.

Bulanon was suspended in connection with the Choy case but was later reinstated.

Earlier, the PNP leadership revealed that some inmates of the Masbate Provincial Jail were being released from their detention to do some dirty works for local politicians, among them are raising fund for them through robbery and kidnapping and killing their political adversaries.