The National Bureau of Investigation on Tuesday announced the arrest of a man in Marikina City for illegal drugs and illegal possession of firearms.
NBI Officer-In-Charge Eric B. Distor identified the suspect as Philip Jacob Nocom, who uses aliases such as Alex Benson Vergara, John Robert Bautista, and Joseph Francis Lee.
He was charged before the Office of the City Prosecutor of Marikina City for violation of Section 28 of R.A. 10591 (Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act), Section 11 of R.A. 9165 (Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002), and Section 3 of Commonwealth Act No. 142, Regulating the Use of Alias.
The operation stemmed from a report received by NBI-International Operation Division from the owner of a security firm on June 25, 2020, that his employees discovered in a condo unit two pieces of high powered firearms, live ammunitions, and white crystalline substance suspected to be shabu.
Earlier that day, a representative of the unit owner sought the assistance of the two security guards of the condominium to check on the tenant whom they known as “Alex Vergara” because the tenant has defaulted payment for two months. After knocking several times and waiting for several hours, and with the permission of the unit owner, they forcibly opened the door. They found Vergara lying on his bed, almost unconscious and weak. The security guards also saw an M16 rifle beside Vergara’s bed and a 9mm caliber automatic pistol with several loaded magazine lying around. They also saw several transparent plastics with white crystalline substance. Several identification cards were also found inside the unit.
Thereafter, the security guards informed their superior and reported the incident to the NBI-IOD. NBI-IOD operatives immediately proceeded to the area and inspected the unit. There they found crystalline like substance on several plastic sachets. NBI-IOD then called the assistance of NBI-Task Force Against Illegal Drugs being the operational unit within the NBI mandated to investigate illegal drug related cases.
When the NBI-TFAID arrived, the security guards in the presence of barangay officials, turned over to the NBI operatives the M16 automatic rifle, caliber 9mm automatic pistol, several live ammunitions, several loaded M16 and pistol magazines, several tactical knives, hand held radios, several electronic devices, and several government issued identifications including two (2) kilograms of shabu and .5 grams of cocaine with an estimated value of P13 Million.
Based on the seized documents, the operatives discovered that subject Vergara is using three other aliases. Subject was placed under arrest and was brought to the NBI-Manila.