Rifles, pistol seized from 2 illegal dealers in CIDG operation

COTABATO CITY — Policemen seized two M1 Garand rifles and a .45 caliber pistol from two illegal gun dealers entrapped in Alamada, Cotabato on Saturday afternoon.

Lt. Col. Allan Huesca, regional chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-Bangsamoro Autonomous Region, told reporters on Sunday that the duo, Marlon Danding and Saddam Polayagan, are now clamped down in a police detention facility.

Danding and Polayagan fell in a sting by CIDG-BAR agents in a secluded area in Alamada town in Cotabato, a component-province of Region 12, but close to towns in Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao del Norte, both in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.

The CIDG-BAR shall use the two .30 caliber M1 Garand rifles and .45 caliber pistol confiscated from them during a tradeoff on Saturday afternoon in Alamada as evidence in prosecuting them for violation of the Republic Act No. 10591 or the “Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act”.

RA No. 10591 prohibits possession, or sale of firearms, ammunition and explosives without permission from the Philippine National Police.

Text messages have been spreading around Alamada and nearby towns stating that Danding ang Polayagan have long been peddling unlicensed firearms clandestinely in Cotabato and Maguindanao del Norte provinces and that they both have links with the outlawed Dawlah Islamiya and the Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters.