Ormoc City – Some 23 boxes of assorted firecrackers were seized by the local police here while they were unloaded to a Taiwanese store along Burgos street, past 6 p.m. Sunday.
Chief Inspector Mario Cristino Lucero told The Star that a stainless van (RCU-832) unloading boxes containing piccolo and other firecrackers was caught in the act by his operatives in front of Van department store owned by a Taiwanese identified only as Angkong. But records obtained by The Star showed that the owner is one Benito Otero with address to the said establishment.
Lucero said that his operative PO3 Rodolfo Maglasang Jr., received a tip from an informant that smuggled firecrackers were being unloaded to the said area about 6 p.m. He said that when Maglasang arrived in the area, he actually witnessed three persons unloading two boxes and brought this inside the store.
Maglasang said that upon his arrival at the site, he immediately identified himself as a lawman and opened one of the boxes and saw that it contained piccolo firecrackers. He said the Taiwanese tried to bribe him inside the store and wrote in his left wrist number 3000 which he believed was the amount to bribe him. – Roberto Dejon