Sandiganbayan issues hold departure order vs ex-PNP official, 14 others

Sandiganbayan Building along Commonwealth, Quezon City.
(Photo courtesy of DGR Law Offices)

The Sandiganbayan, a special appellate collegial court in the Philippines, has issued yesterday a hold departure order against Chief. Supt. Raul Petrasanta, former head of the Firearms and Explosives Office of the Philippine National Police, along with 14 policemen and private individuals.

Petrasanta and others have been forbidden by the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division to leave the country for their alleged involvement in a scam concerning illegal sales of high powered AK-47 firearms.

The policemen who were allegedly involved in the scam were Sr. Supt. Eduardo Acierto, Supt. Nelson Bautista, Chief Supt. Regino Catiis, head of Firearms and Licensing Division; Napoleon Estilles, ex-head of the Firearms and Explosives Office;  Retired Director Gil Meneses of Civil Security Group;  Sr. Supt. Allan Parreño; Chief. Supt. Tomas Rentoy III, head of Supervisory Office for Security, Investigation Agencies; Chief Inspectors Ricky Sumalde and Ricardo Zapata Jr; and SPO1s Randy de Testo and Eric Tan.

The private individuals also implicated were Sol Bargan, Nora Pirote and Isidro Lozada of Caraga Security Agency.

All individuals listed above are the defendants in a graft case where licenses were contentiously released from August 2011 until April 2013 to four private companies whose documents to obtain such licenses were lacking. More than 100 AK-47 riffles were involved in the 3 year-long illegal transactions.