‘Evidence strong vs ex-PNP execs in rifle scam’

MANILA, Philippines — The Sandiganbayan has maintained that ombudsman prosecutors were able to present strong evidence against former officials of the Philippine National Police (PNP) who are facing graft cases in connection with the AK-47 rifle scam in 2013.

In a resolution promulgated on Dec. 2, the anti-graft court’s Sixth Division warned four of the defendants that the prosecution’s evidence is “sufficient to support the graft charges” filed against them, if unrebutted.

The defendants are former Civil Security Group chief Gil Meneses, former Firearms and Explosives Office (FEO) head Napoleon Estilles, former PNP Supervisory Office for Security and Investigation Agencies chief Tomas Rentoy III and dismissed Chief Insp. Regino Catiis.

The Sixth Division said the arguments raised by Estilles, Catiis, Meneses and Rentoy in their respective motions for reconsideration “are evidentiary in nature and are matters of defense, which may be best passed upon after a full-blown trial.”

The former PNP officials asked the court to reconsider its July 28 resolution, which denied their joint motion for leave to file a demurrer to evidence.

Last month, the Sandiganbayan also denied the motions for reconsideration filed by former FEO chief Raul Petrasanta and former Senior Superintendent Allan Parreño.

A demurrer would have allowed Petrasanta and his co-defendants to seek the dismissal of the 13 counts of graft filed agains them without presenting their defense, but solely on the ground of the supposed weakness of evidence of the prosecution.

In its new resolution, the Sixth Division clarified that the defendants may still file their demurrers without a leave of court, but subject to the legal consequence that they “shall waive their right to present evidence and are submitting the case for judgment based on the evidence adduced by the prosecution.”

The court set the hearing for the defense’s presentation of evidence on Jan. 13, 2022.

Filed by the ombudsman in 2015, the cases stemmed from the PNP’s allegedly anomalous issuance of licenses for over 100 AK-47 rifles from August 2011 to April 2013, in favor of four private companies despite falsified documents.

Most of the firearms were reportedly recovered from members of the New People’s Army during an encounter with the military in Mindanao in 2014.

The Office of the Ombudsman had dismissed all the police officials allegedly involved in the rifle scam.