Blue guards of Belgian trader arrested
BY RUBY P. SILUBRICO

BORACAY - Two security guards of a Belgian national were arrested last Wednesday after firearms and ammunition were recovered inside their boat along the shore of Station 3, Barangay Manoc-Manoc in the Island of Boracay in Aklan.

Aklan Police Provincial Office Director Benigno Durana Jr. said the two guards were identified as Gilbert Igloso, 29, of Pusok, Lapu-Lapu City, and Reynante Apostol, 31, of Mandaue City, both employees of SS7 Security Agency. Igloso and Apostol reportedly serve as escorts of Guido Theohl Poppe, a Belgian national who is the vice president of the company "Conchology Inc.," which is based in the Cebu Light Industrial Park (Clip) in Lapu-Lapu City.

The two are presently detained for violating the gun ban. The guards, police said, failed to present documents stating they were exempted from the gun ban or that they were allowed to transport the firearms.

Recovered from guards' possession were two caliber .45 pistols with four magazines, two .9mm pistols with two short magazines and two long magazines, a Norinco shotgun and another Maverick 12-gauge shotgun with ammunition.

The Task Force Boracay, Philippine Coast Guard, and soldiers under Insp. Albert Ebdane were conducting a security operation along the shoreline when they spotted m/v Guphel, the boat of the guards, at around 11:30 a.m.

After it docked at the shoreline of the island's Station 3, they were able to discover firearms and ammunition inside the vessel.

Durana said the firearms are probably owned by the SS7 Agency and was provided to the guards in line with their job to protect the Belgian. He said that their operation was only the result of their active operation in observing one-entry, one-exit policy.