NBI raids house of Bacolod cop, seizes firearms, drugs

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) raided the house of a police officer in Bacolod who was tagged in the killing of two family members of Negros Island’s top drug suspect.

The raid was conducted at the house of Senior Police Officer 1 (SPO1) Joshua Barile at Regent Pearl Homes in Barangay Alijis on Friday, September 22.

Armed with a search warrant issued by a judge in Manila, joint operatives of the NBI, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency, and the Philippine National Police raided the home of Barile, explosives office section head of the Regional Civil Security Unit-Negros.

NBI-Bacolod head Renoir Baldovino said they recovered more than 50 firearms, including M16 and M4 assault rifles, 4 grenades, more than 1,000 assorted ammunition, and a sachet containing suspected shabu or methamphetamine hydrochloride.

Baldovino said they have placed the policeman under surveillance for about a month, based on their intelligence information about Barile’s possession of firearms.

He stressed that all firearms seized in Barile’s home were “illegal.”

“It’s illegal because he couldn’t present any documents. He has no papers to show. In the absence of documents, it is [considered] illegal,” Baldovino said.

He added that Barile stored “too many” firearms in his house.

Barile, however, claimed in media interviews that the recovered firearms were evidence from the raids they conducted and that he only stored them in his house for safekeeping.

He also claimed that the explosives found above the washing machine and the plastic sachet containing suspected shabu were planted.

Barile said he believed that some politician was behind the raid. But when further pressed by reporters, Baldovino refused to elaborate.

Barile, who is now in the custody of NBI, is facing charges for illegal possession of firearms, explosives and ammunition.

He is also facing two murder complaints before the City Prosecutor’s Office.

He was the alleged gunman in the shooting of the father and younger brother of Ricky Serenio, the alleged bagman of Berya drug group who linked several ranking policemen and other law enforcers in the illegal drug trade in Negros Island Region.