The mayor of Banga town in South Cotabato who was arrested for possession of firearms and ammunition Thursday is now being detained at the jail of his own town, while awaiting resolution of his petition to post bail.
Mayor Albert Palencia has been transferred to his own town’s police detention facility from Gen. Santos City where he was processed by agents of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).
“I hope I can post bail today so I will be out while the case is pending in court,” Palencia, who was accused of being a drug lord and gambling lord, an allegation he vehemently denied.
Agents of the PNP-12 Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (RAIDSOTF) on Thursday raided the house of Palencia based on 18 search warrants issued by a local court.
Police seized four bullets for cal. 380 from Palencia’s house and a rifle grenade from his piggery in Barangay Punong Grande, Banga, South Cotabato.
Palencia was No. 3 in President Duterte’s second batch of narco list.
Palencia denied he owned the bullets and the rifle grenade but he said he will abide by the processes the police are applying on him, including being detained in his town’s police lock-up cell.
“I have never been involved in illegal drugs, our town employees for the past four years know that pretty well…“I am supportive of the anti-drug campaign of the government,” Palencia, who owns six luxury cars the police also searched in yesterday’s raid, said.
Aside from his home and piggery, the police also searched his cars, including a US-made RAM car and Hummer vehicle, but no drugs were found.
“The raid also clears my name, the police found no drugs in my house and that erases intelligence information that I am a drug lord and that I maintain a drug laboratory,” he told DXOM-AM Radyo Bida.
“I understand the police in carrying out their jobs…it’s better they have proven that I was not into drug because they got nothing or any drug in my house,” he added.
Palencia said the raid was in order, his rights were not violated and it was done in the presence of local TV networks.
However, the main door of his home was broken and the CCTV camera was destroyed by the raiding team.
“I assured the police that I will not run away, I did not hide or evade arrest because I know I am not a drug lord or a gambling lord,” Palencia said.
South Cotabato Gov. Daisy Fuentes said the raid on Palencia’s house was expected.
“I told him his name has been floating in the narco list, I asked him to surrender but he refused saying he was not hiding anything,” Fuentes added.
The post Mayor Detained in His own Town’s Jail appeared first on Manila Bulletin
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