Cop, janitor looted police armory

By Mortz C. Ortigoza

One of the major reasons why 41 issued government handguns have been lost at the armory of Urdaneta City Police Station was a Police Officer -3 was seen by a janitor looting the cache of firearms many of them donated by the city government to the police.

“Sir, anong ginagawa ninyo?” the janitor, known as alias Dalmacio, posed to the policeman who was surprised when the janitor, police called “striker”, barged at the wee hours in the second floor of the station.

Instead of desisting to what he was doing he told the janitor to help himself burglarized the armory where some of them either pawned or sold to village officials and businessmen in Urdaneta City.

“The police man is restricted to barrack now at the police provincial office pending criminal and administrative charges while the “striker” is locked up at the jail in the City,” a high police official who asked anonymity told me.

My police source cited the P30,000 to P40,000 Beretta or Glock pistol they each sold or mortgaged for as low as P6,000 each.

Police Superintendent Jackie Candelario, Deputy Police Provincial Director for Operation, cited that 17 of the 41 lost handguns were already recovered by the police since December 24, 2016 from  various persons like businessmen the suspected police officer, janitor, and the other eight police personnel of the Urdaneta City Police Station had illegal transaction.

Recipients of the handguns said the arms were either sold or pawned to them by policemen, whose names are withheld, who are being investigated by the Pangasinan Police Office and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group from the Police Regional Office.

(You can read my selected columns at http://mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)