Arrest warrants for two counts of murder and kidnapping were served by the police to controversial Don Salvador Benedicto Councilor Vicente “Oti” Bacordo, who is now detained at the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology facilities in San Carlos City, for illegal possession of firearms, police records show.

Senior Supt. Allan Guisihan, provincial police director of Negros Occidental, yesterday said the murder and kidnapping charges against Bacordo, which had been archived for so many years, was revived, after they found that his amnesty application has not been acted upon by the government.

Bacordo was formerly alleged to be the leader of an armed independent group in the late 1980’s before he joined the New People’s Army in northern Negros. He became a barangay captain and later a councilor of Don Salvador Benedicto town, after his arrest in 1994, and joined the mainstream society.

Guisihan said Bacordo was denied bail by the court.

The arrest warrants served to Bacordo Thursday at the BJMP in San Carlos City, were signed by Judge Kathryn Go.

Bacordo and four of his armed companions, who were arrested two weeks ago in San Carlos City, however, were granted bail of P80,000 each, for illegal possession of firearms.

Three members of the Revolutionary Proletarian Army-Alex Boncayao Brigade, who had figured in a shootout with two companions of Bacordo, are also detained at the San Carlos BJMP for failure to post bail, in connection with similar offenses filed against them.

The apprehension of Bacordo and his four companions, and of three other RPA-ABB members in San Carlos City, yielded four .45 caliber pistol, an Ingram machine pistol, a US carbine rifle, 357 magnum and .38 caliber revolvers.

Guisihan had earlier issued an ultimatum to the armed companions of Bacordo to surrender their firearms, or be subjected to police operations.

He admitted that he thought Bacordo and his colleagues were RPA-ABB members, and that prompted the police to tolerate their presence in RPA-ABB areas in Don Salvador Benedicto.*GPB

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