‘Viral video’ motorist nabbed for guns
Police yesterday raided the house of a businessman caught on video beating up a traffic enforcer in Makati City during an altercation earlier this month.
Armed with a search warrant, lawmen raided the house of Arnold Aquino Padilla and the residence of his bodyguard, Alfie Ortiz, located inside the exclusive Magallanes subdivision in Makati City.
Police said Padilla and Ortiz yielded several firearms and ammunition during the raid.
National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO) chief Director Guillermo Eleazar led the raiding team in searching the house.
The raiding lawmen also found hand grenades in the apartment unit rented by Ortiz.
Eleazar clarified the raid had nothing to do with the incident involving Padilla and Ortiz.
A security video showed Padilla, his live-in partner and his bodyguard verbally abusing and beating a traffic enforcer during a heated argument over a traffic violation. The video went viral in social media, eliciting adverse reactions from netizens.
According to Eleazar, the police had been building up a case against Padilla following reports that he is keeping several unlicensed firearms.
He said the police also received reports that two days before, two vans were seen loading items believed to be firearms and were transferred to still undisclosed location.
Padilla’s lawyer Raymond Fortun witnessed the raid and talked with policemen about the search warrant. Barangay officials and journalists also witnessed the raid.
Padilla admitted owning the two pistols seized by the lawmen, claiming they were properly licensed.
Padilla then begged the raiding lawmen to bring him to a hospital, claiming he was suffering from hypertension. The PNP’s Firearms and Explosives Office (FEO) director Chief Supt. Valeriano de Leon said they revoked Padilla’s gun license last April after he submitted fake drug test results.
De Leon said Padilla’s gun licenses were set to expire in May but upon investigation of the documents, it was found out that the drug results the businessman had submitted were fake.
“On the documents being submitted to us and we found out these are fake so we revoked his license,” De Leon said.
He said the FEO denied the appeal made by Padilla’s lawyer on the revocation.
“He had no choice to but to surrender the four pistols and a shotgun registered before the FEO,” De Leon said.
De Leon said Padilla could be charged with illegal possession of firearms after lawmen found other guns at his home in Makati City.
“We are certain this is a clear violation. He is not authorized to own and possess firearms,” he said.
Padilla is also facing several complaints from his neighbors, GMA News reported yesterday.
A village security guard said Padilla spat and verbally abused him when he responded to a commotion involving the businessman’s bodyguards.
Padilla is also a primary suspect in the killing of his sister Yvonne Chua on Dec. 29, 2010.
Chua reportedly received a gift containing five hand grenades that exploded, killing her and injuring her six-year-old daughter. Padilla had denied the charges.