Police operatives arrested an alleged hitman in Negros Oriental’s Bais City, believed to have links with a private armed group and a number of shooting incidents in the province.

The arrested suspect, identified as Allan Lagos Carcuevas, underwent an inquest proceeding at the Bais City prosecutor’s office yesterday morning for illegal possession of a firearm, ammunition and explosive, Lt. Colonel Roland Lavisto, chief of the Bais City Police Station, said.

Carcuevas was arrested on Tuesday, August 15, in the city’s Barangay Panala-an, during the service of a search warrant against him, a report from the Negros Oriental Police Provincial Office (NOPPO) said.

He had previous records for violations of the Republic Act (RA) 10591, or the “Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act,” and RA 9516, also known as the “Unlawful Manufacture, Sales, Acquisition, Disposition, Importation or Possession of an Explosive or Incendiary Device.”

Seized from the suspect were a hand grenade, a .45-caliber pistol with a magazine and seven rounds of live ammunition.

The NOPPO Provincial Intelligence Unit led the operation based on a directive from the Police Regional Office 7 based in Cebu City.

According to Lavisto, Carcuevas was allegedly involved in the attempted assassination of a politician in the province in the past and a number of shooting incidents in Mabinay, Bais, and other parts of central and northern Negros Oriental.

He was also reportedly a contact person for other local “hitmen” during the past elections.

The Bais police chief said no other details were made available about the suspect’s background.

Lt. Stephen Polinar, deputy chief of the Police Community Affairs and Development Unit of NOPPO, said investigators are now looking into the suspect’s possible link to an alleged terrorist group behind the murder of Governor Roel Degamo.

Polinar declined to name the politician in the assassination attempt that implicated Carcuevas.

Carcuevas is the second “hitman” to be arrested in Negros Oriental, since Colonel Ronan Claravall was designated acting police provincial director.

The first was Alex Mayagma, who died in a police operation on July 31 in Bayawan City.

Mayagma was tagged as the top most wanted person in Central Visayas and was named as a respondent in the complaints filed before the Department of Justice this year in relation to the murder of Board Member Miguel Dungog in 2019. (PNA)