Jailed mayor mulls charges against NBI who nabbed him

URBIZTONDO, Pangasinan — The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) may face charges of illegal detention and illegal arrest for jailing Mayor Ernesto Balolong, Jr. of this town after a raid of his residence yielded a cache of firearms, which his lawyer claimed, was completely covered by licenses.

NBI agents swooped down on mayor’s residence last Nov. 27 and discovered 21 high-powered firearms, resulting in his arrest and subsequent detention at the NBI Headquarters in Manila.

Last Tuesday, Balolong was released and, along with his legal counsel Atty. Joseph Samson, revealed to local media here Wednesday his intention to file charges against the NBI team that raided his house.

According to him, he was released because the charges of illegal possession of firearms and resisting arrest filed against him before the Department of Justice (DOJ) did not stick.

Samson said they are still studying what specific charges to file against the NBI raiding team who dragged Balolong out of his house despite allegedly having presented all the documents that his firearms are registered in his name and the names of his family members and bodyguards.

Balolong said he was still in trauma over the incident and that he believes politics was the root cause of the raid of his house.

He, however, declined to elaborate on the matter.

Balolong Wednesday returned to his office after posting bail for four counts of tampering with firearm serial numbers before the Municipal Circuit Trial Court here.

The NBIheld Balolong for a week after a raid on his house and poultry and hog farms yielded 21 firearms. 

“I want them to file a case against me so I can answer them in court. I have nothing to hide,” the mayor said.

Balolong posted bail of P60,000 for each count of tampering with firearm serial numbers and was freed Tuesday night.

The charges covered three M-16 rifles and an M-14 rifle, which Balolong said he bought as loose firearms but had them licensed under the government’s firearm amnesty program.

Balolong said he turned over all the licenses of the other firearms seized by the raiding team last Nov. 27.

Although his guns are licensed, Balolong said he was still handcuffed and held by the NBI for questioning.

He said he was initially charged with illegal possession of firearms and resisting arrest but the prosecutor dismissed this, until the case filed against him was just allegedly tampering the serial numbers of the four rifles.

He said he was told that his firearms were to be subjected to ballistic tests on suspicion that some of them were allegedly used in previous murders, including the killing of former Lingayen vice mayor Ramon Arcinue and his wife, Zorahayda, in February 2012. 

Balolong said his firearms, all of which are still with the NBI, are not only for his personal use but also for his business, especially his hog and poultry farms, adding that the situation here is different amid recent killings.

Although he did not name those supposedly behind the raid, he said their identities are of public knowledge. “They are even the ones who followed up my case in the NBI and the Department of Justice,” he said. 

The Nov. 27 raid was the second on Balolong’s house and farms. In the first raid, he proved that all his guns had proper licenses.

While at the NBI, Balolong said he was also asked about his alleged role in the Arcinue killings, but that he denied any knowledge about it and pointed to politics as the reason he was being implicated in the crime.

Pedro Roque Jr., NBI Pangasinan director, earlier said Otto Guialaludin, the arrested suspected triggerman, had tagged Balolong as the alleged mastermind. 

But Balolong said a witness, a local policeman, attested that he was with Guialaludin in a gasoline station owned by the mayor here at the time the Arcinue couple was killed.

He said Guialaludin was among his bodyguards.