Cagayan resident arrests gun ban violator

TUGUEGARAO CITY, Philippines – A gun ban violator in the Cagayan Valley region was the subject of a citizen’s arrest during the elections on Monday, May 9.

Police Chief Inspector Chevalier Iringan said the concerned resident who arrested a gun ban violator exercised a power enabling private individuals to turn in law violators to the proper authorities.

“Ang maganda dito ay in-exercise nila yung power nila na tinatawag na ‘citizen’s arrest’ na ibinigay sa kanila ng ating Saligang Batas dahil kaunti lang ang nakakaalam dito,” Iringan told Rappler in a phone interview.

(What’s good about this is they exercised their power of ‘citizen’s arrest’ which is vested to them by the Constitution. Only few people knew about this.)

Iringan also said there were cases of “malicious mischief and threats” and gun ban violations reported on election day, but there were no killings or incidents of violence in the region.

Since January 2016, however, at least 16 people have been killed due to politics – 7 in Isabela and 9 in Cagayan.

The latest killing was on May 7, the last day of the campaign period, when a mayoral candidate of Jones town in Isabela was gunned down.

Three people were killed and 4 were hurt, including a 12-year-old girl who was shot in the head.

The suspects in the ambush have been arrested and are now facing murder charges.

‘Faulty VCMs’

Iringan said they also received reports of faulty vote-counting machines (VCMs) at the height of the voting period, adding that these led to delayed voting in some polling precincts in the region.

Only about 5% of the VCMs malfunctioned, he added. (READ: Poll tech glitches ‘very negligible – Palace)

In Tuguegarao City, the proclamation of winners was delayed until Wednesday, May 11, because of a VCM not reading its SD card. 

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) still had to bring the VCM and SD card to Smartmatic’s field office in La Union to fix the glitches.

Comelec officials here said that the 500 votes in the precinct with the malfunctioning VCM may still affect the results of the 12th and 13th councilors. – Rappler.com