(File photo)
MANILA – Some 8,313 firearms with expired licenses belong to elected officials, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said on Tuesday.
Speaking to reporters in Camp Crame, PNP Civil Security Group (CSG) director Brig. Gen. Benjamin Silo Jr. said the figure comprises 27 percent of 30,068 firearms registered to elected officials.
"What we did in CSG is we provide extra special effort to encourage these people, elected officials to renew their expired licenses. Our safe estimate is 50 percent of these expired firearms are from barangay officials. Aside from our internal efforts to encourage them to renew their firearms, we will be coordinating with barangay affairs of DILG (Department of the Interior and Local Government) for them to help us encourage barangay officials so that they can renew their licenses especially that the BSKE (Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan Elections) is approaching," Silo said.
He added that they will also furnish the Commission on Elections (Comelec) with a list of barangay officials owning firearms with expired licenses.
Silo said elected officials should set a good example to civilians in terms of firearms ownership through the regular renewal of their gun licenses
“It’s more on encouraging them to comply with the provision of RA (Republic Act) 10591. Ang una pong dapat sumusunod sa panuntunan at provisions ng batas ay government officials and elected officials. Sana maging modelo tayo nang sa ganun masigurado natin na ang darating na BSKE ay mapayapa, tahimik at maayos (It's more on encouraging them to comply with the provision of RA 10591. The first ones who must follow the rules and provisions of the law are government officials and elected officials. I hope we can be a model so that we can make sure that the coming BSKE will be peaceful, quiet and orderly),” he stressed.
Meanwhile, a total of 19,000 out of a total of 539,000 firearms with expired licenses belong to police and military personnel.
He said they already conveyed this matter to the offices of the concerned personnel.
Silo said that those PNP personnel will face administrative cases once they violate any provision of penal laws to require their members to comply with the requirements of the law.
Silo also said that 240 gun owners have already renewed their licenses during its one-stop-shop and other satellite offices on Saturdays and Sundays that started on June 10 for the processing and issuance of firearms-related licenses as part of efforts to crack down on the proliferation of loose firearms.
He added that the move aims to accommodate people who do not have time to transact on weekdays due to work.
From Jan. 1 to May 26, the PNP confiscated 11,417 loose firearms from 3,599 persons arrested for possession of illegal firearms.
During the same period, police units received 6,513 firearms for safekeeping and filed 1,783 cases in court. (PNA)
