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Possession of ammunition covered by gun ban: Comelec

Illegal possession of ammunition is covered by the Commission on Elections’ (Comelec) prohibition on firearms and deadly weapons implemented during the election period, a key agency official here said Monday.

“However, the inclusion of the illegal possession of ammunition in the Comelec gun ban depends on where the suspect has been arrested,” Lawyer Lionel Marco Castillano, the provincial election supervisor of Negros Oriental, told the Philippine News Agency in an interview.

“If the suspect was arrested at a checkpoint or any public place, he or she can be charged with violation of the gun ban and Republic Act 10591 (the Comprehensive Law on Firearms and Ammunition),” he said in mixed English and Cebuano.

But if the person was arrested inside his home or any private place, even if during a police operation such as the serving of a search warrant, the Comelec gun ban will not apply but still, the suspect can be charged with illegal possession of ammunition under the Comprehensive Firearms Law, he added.

Castillano’s explanation came following the arrest of a suspected drug pusher on Monday during the implementation of a search warrant at the Cadawinonan Housing Project in Barangay Cadawinonan here.

A report from the Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office identified the suspect as Richard Ramos Gonzales, 38, and tagged as a “high-value individual” in the police’s database of drug personalities.

Seized from the suspect were suspected shabu weighing more or less five grams with a standard value of PHP34,000 and 10 pieces of .38-caliber ammunition.

“Since the suspect was arrested in a private place, then he cannot be charged with violation of the gun ban,” Castillano said.

The Comelec gun ban is among the prohibitions implemented during the election period from January 9 to June 8 this year, in relation to the May 9 national and local polls.

Source: Philippines News Agency