Parañaque councilor’s aides held in Quezon

By Delfin T. Mallari Jr.
Inquirer Southern Luzon

LUCENA CITY—Police arrested four aides of a Parañaque City councilor for indiscriminate firing in San Antonio town, Quezon province, on Friday.

Chief Insp. Edcille Canals, Quezon police media relations officer, said two residents of Barangay Buliran in San Antonio filed complaints at the local police station around 7:30 p.m. on Friday after their houses were hit by stray bullets coming from their neighbor.

Canals said Senior Insp. Fernando Reyes III, San  Antonio police chief, led a police team to the neighborhood to investigate and even “heard gunshots still being fired as they were approaching the place.”

He said when the suspects noticed the arriving lawmen, four ran inside a house carrying their firearms.

They were later identified as Cayetano Racquel, 36; Jofiel Dagondong, 35; Pablito Swelto Jr., 44, and Jose Rosal, 43, all residents of Barangay Marcelo Green, Parañaque City.

The house they entered was under construction and owned by Parañaque City Councilor Florencia Amurao, but she was not around during the firing, Reyes said in a phone interview.

Reyes said the suspects were aides of the councilor. Seized from them were several unlicensed firearms.