Loose guns drive exceeds target but not enough

CEBU, Philippines - Though it was pointed out that the 12.53-percent accomplishment of the Philippine National Police in its “Kontra Boga” campaign has exceeded target, the Police Regional Office-7 is set to hold a command conference anytime this week to review and reassess its approach.

This as the general firearms amnesty period extension implemented this year has so far resulted to only 6,155 firearms being accounted for in the last four months, or from July to October of this year.

The figure given translates to only 12.53-percent accomplishment as against the number of loose firearms the police want to recover estimated to be more than 52,000.

“We are not taking any stone unturned and we are not letting up in our aggressiveness approach in the drive against loose firearms,” Marcelo Garbo, PRO-7 deputy regional director for operations, said in the “Talakayan sa Isyung Pulis (TSIP) Forum last week.

The general firearms amnesty period should have closed by October 31 but this was extended until the end of this month to give gun owners more time to avail of the opportunity to renew expired license or to register undocumented guns.

 According to Garbo, the command conference on review and reassessment of their approach will be carried out with provincial and city police directors in Central Visayas and staff members involved with the “Kontra Boga” campaign.

“We need to review and evaluate our strategy and from there, we will restate our approach and techniques as we aim for the top three out of all police regional offices nationwide in the highest number of loose firearms accounting,” Garbo said.

The command conference will be carried out with provincial and city police directors in Central Visayas and staff members involved in the “Kontra Boga” campaign, a PNP initiative enforced through aggressive police operations targeting unregistered and unlicensed or with expired license firearms in the hands of threat groups, criminal elements and the civilian population.

As for PRO-7 Firearms and Explosives Unit head Jacinto Cesar, he said that the 6,155 guns accounted for were based on renewal of expired licenses, registration of undocumented weapons and recovered firearms through police operations.

The number of accounted loose guns, he added, could have gone up if the firearms surrendered to his office were included in the data. But such were not part of the accounting of Camp Crame.

Loose firearms are classified as those being carried by threat groups, criminal gangs or syndicates and those guns with expired license as well as undocumented firearms.

However, it was Louie Oppus, PRO-7 deputy director for operations, who made it clear that the 12.53-percent police accomplishment has actually surpassed the target given by higher headquarters.

“Camp Crame requires a monthly reduction of three percent and if you look at the data, our accomplishment is 12.53 percent for the past four months which slightly exceeds our target,” Oppus said.

Assessment on police performance in the campaign will be done during the command conference. So far, Oppus said, the top performer is the Bohol Provincial Police Office.

BPPO has an actual accomplishment of 26.94 percent or 1,140 accounted firearms against its baseline of 4,232 firearms; followed by the Siquijor Provincial Police Office with an accomplishment rate of 22.55 percent or an accounting of 76 weapons out of its baseline of 337 firearms, the report stated.

Cebu City Police Office has an accomplishment rate of 16.02 percent or 2,176 accounted firearms out of the total baseline of 13,585 firearms; while the Mandaue City Police Office has 10.9-percent accomplishment with 544 accounted firearms out of the 5,392 firearms as baseline.

The Cebu Provincial Police Office’s accomplishment is at 6.85 percent with the accounting of 969 guns out of the 14,143 firearms as baseline. Negros Provincial Police Office posted a 5.92-percent accomplishment rate or 352 firearms out of 5,947 weapons as baseline.

Lastly, the Lapu-Lapu City Police Office has an accomplishment of 3.44 percent or 189 accounted guns out of 5,500 firearms as baseline. — Jessica Ann R. Pareja/MEEV   (FREEMAN NEWS)