MANILA, Philippines - At least 150 policemen raided yesterday the residential compound of the mayor of Pulupandan town in Negros Occidental and confiscated 56 firearms and explosives.

Director Cipriano Querol, head of the Directorate for Intelligence of the Philippine National Police, said the raid on the house of Pulupandan Mayor Magdaleno PeÃ±a is part of their efforts against loose firearms to ensure peaceful and orderly elections on May 13.

Querol said PeÃ±a was not around when the raiding team served the search warrant issued by Judge Filomena Teng of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 85, in his estate in Barangay Ubay, Pulupandan town.

According to Querol, elements of the Special Action Force (SAF), Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) and the Western Visayas police are now looking for PeÃ±a to make him answer for the presence of the firearms in his estate.

â€œWe dispatched 91 SAF policemen to the area, augmented by the CIDG and Western Visayas police, amid reports that PeÃ±a has several private armed groups under his employ,â€ Querol said.

In the absence of PeÃ±a, the raiders headed by Chief Superintendent Agrimero Cruz, Western Visayas police director, served the search warrant to the mayorâ€™s lawyer, Roem Arbolado, at 6 a.m. yesterday.

The raiding team disarmed two police officers, identified as PO2 Pedrito Lupo of the Provincial Public Safety Battalion and SPO1 Vicente Castillo of the Pulupandan police, and two government militiamen spotted in PeÃ±aâ€™s three-hectare estate. The two cops were in civilian clothes and carrying guns.

Cruz said a subsequent search yielded 56 firearms, including seven M-16 Armalite rifles, six AK-47 assault rifles, 41 shotguns, two .45-caliber pistols, and two Sniper rifles, plus two quarter pound military TNT explosives, and assorted magazines and bullets for the seized guns.

Arbolado told Cruz that the seized firearms are covered by pertinent documents.

PeÃ±a, former husband of actress Plinky Recto, said the raided house belongs to his brother and two sons and that the guns were licensed. He claimed that the raiding team planted the explosives.

â€œThese are not ordinary firearms. We will check if these are licensed. The ammunition are plenty enough for an army and can be used for undesirable purpose,â€œ Cruz said.

He said the explosives, which are of military grade and not commercially available, can damage a small building if detonated.

â€œAlthough these have lot numbers, we will determine where these explosives came from,â€ he said.

PeÃ±a, who was recently disbarred by the Supreme Court, is not seeking re-election. His son is running for Pulupandan mayor instead.

â€“ With Cecille Suerte Felipe