7 fake uniformed `authorities' to face criminal prosecution

LANAO DEL SUR --- The police will prosecute for violation of Article 117 of the Revised Penal Code seven people who seemed crackpots arrested entering Marawi City wearing police and Army uniforms.Chief Supt. Reuben Theodore Sindac, police director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said Friday that the suspects who are now in their custody shall be charged with usurpation of authority and official functions. They clearly violated the Article 117 of the Revised Penal Code. They will be prosecuted to that effect, Sindac said.The suspects,Ariel Cabanes Bijaan, Pacito Sabuclalao Villanueva, Juniper Adlawan Alestre, Bienvenido Malasa Sepe, Florante Ramos Alejandrino, Rufina Gomez Gayatao and Elsie Timola Lantong, are now detained at the Marawi City police station, undergoing interrogation.They were intercepted by soldiers and policemen guarding a checkpoint along a stretch of the Iligan-Marawi Highway onboard a White Toyota Fortuner en route to Marawi City.Sindac said the suspects were immediately arrested when checkpoint sentries noticed that the police and Army uniforms they wore have different unit insignias. They have different kinds of identification cards too, Sindac said, citing an initial report by the Marawi City police office.Investigators also found extra Army and police uniforms in their vehicle that the local police also impounded.The suspects also had military uniforms in their luggage with patches purporting they belong to non-existent military units ofthe United Nations.One of the uniforms recovered from their possession was for a 17-star general. Those were very strange uniforms. They are weird. Nowhere in this world can we find a state, or an international organization that has such military rank, Sindac said.Sindac said the seven suspects are now being probed for possible links with the Maute terror group. Let’s give investigators and our intelligence agents enough time to finish their work towards that end, Sindac said.