Bacolod cop linked to gunrunning faces criminal, admin raps
A personnel of Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO) has been charged with an administrative offense after he was arrested for allegedly selling an undocumented firearm during an entrapment operation in Barangay Estefania in Bacolod City on Sunday, May 1.
The suspect, Staff Sgt. Gerwin Catolico, 36, is assigned as an investigator under the General Investigation Section of Police Station 2 headed by Capt. Paul Vincent Pendon, who endorsed the filing of the administrative case.
“He has to face the consequences,” Col. Thomas Joseph Martir, police city director, told reporters yesterday.
Martir said Catolico, who is engaged in the “buy and sell” of vehicles, was previously relieved from duty for another offense and reassigned to the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO6) Regional Personnel Holding and Accounting Unit (RPHAU) in Iloilo City, but was again ordered to return for duty to the BCPO last year.
Catolico is also facing a criminal case for violation of Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act and the Omnibus Election Code filed by the Philippine National Police-Integrity Monitoring and Enforcement Group (PNP-IMEG) that arrested him in an entrapment operation.
The policeman was nabbed after handing over a .45 caliber pistol to a poseur-buyer in exchange for P12,000.
He was considered the primary target of the IMEG’s Case Operational Plan “Pistola” for his involvement in the illegal selling of unlicensed firearms in Negros Occidental and nearby areas.
Catolico is now detained at the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group- Negros Occidental headquarters at Camp Alfredo M. Montelibano Sr.