A soldier was arrested Tuesday night at a checkpoint in Pasig City for violating the Commission on Elections (Comelec) gun ban after he was allegedly found carrying a firearm. Police Senior Supt. Jessie Cardona, chief of the Pasig Police, identified the arrested personnel as one Army Technical Sergeant Albert Bautista.

Cardona said Bautista was arrested at 10:30 p.m. Tuesday by members of the Pasig City Police under team leader Police Senior Inspector Guillermo Flores for carrying a caliber .45 pistol and wearing a Type B rider’s uniform at a checkpoint on Barangay San Joaquin.

Cardona said Bautista was immediately taken to the police headquarters for filing of appropriate charges.

He added that the arrest is in line with the directive of Police Chief Supt. Benjardi Mantele, the district director chief of the Eastern Police District (EPD) and Police Director General Roberto Rosales, National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief, to intensify their operations especially those violating the Comelec gun ban.

“He (Bautista) was arrested after he was found carrying a caliber .45 pistol without any proper authorization. Appropriate charges will be filed against him,” Cardona said.

Cardona said the Pasig City Police has set up checkpoints in the boundary of Cainta, Rizal and at the Ortigas Center in compliance with the gun ban. He added that each checkpoint is manned by a dozen police personnel.

As this developed, two agents of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA) were also arrested at a checkpoint in Quezon City for alleged violation of the election gun ban despite coming out from an operation where they arrested a drug pusher.

Supt. Edgardo Pamittan, commander of Station 11 of the Quezon City Police District (QCPD), Wednesday identified the two arrested agents as Oliver dela Rosa, 35, and Sammy Concepcion, 27.
Pamittan said the two were arrested before dawn Tuesday at the police checkpoint of Station 11 at the

Welcome Rotonda along Quezon Avenue. He said his policemen confiscated from the agents two caliber .45 pistols.

“No one is exempted from the law even if they are law enforcers and government agents,” Pamittan stressed.

He said three other persons who were with them including a drug pusher that the agents arrested were immediately turned over to the PDEA.