Crimes using loose guns alarm CV peace council

CEBU, Philippines – Report on illegal firearms ending up in the hands of criminal elements in the region has alarmed authorities at the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC-7).

The alarm springs from the regional police assessment that loose firearms in the region is a factor to the prevalence of violent crimes, especially when Cebu registers 2090 theft and 668 rob cases within the last two quarters alone.

During the recent meeting held at the Bohol Tropics Resort in Tagbilaran City, Regional Police Intelligence Chief Melvin Ramon Buenafe, in a briefing to the council cited that although there were no high profile rob, kidnapping, terror attacks of media and VIP threats, the Cebu City cases involve loose firearms.

This despite the fact that police has just capped its Operation Kontra Boga and Bilang Boga in the implementation of the national fire-arms control policy, added Buenafe.

In the data he presented, Buenafe pointed to the erratic trends in illegal firearms in the region starting with the last two quarters in 2010.

Regional police records also show that only 11,000 of the 49,000 firearms were accounted during the Oplan Bilang and Oplan Kontra Boga in the police's pre-election crime suppression operations.

While the last three quarters showed a slight reduction in loose firearms, regional cops also noted a rise in confiscated firearms in the second quarter of this year.

Records said that in the third and last quarter of 2009, police succeeded in recovering 495 and 424 fire arms respectively.

The same down trending was noted in the first quarter of 2010 with 390 weapons accounted.

The second quarter however (April-June) proved to be an anomaly with 473 firearms recovered by authorities.

Concerned about how to curb the proliferation of firearms sourced out by criminal elements from backyard gun manufacturers in the region, Police Regional Office-7 director Lani O Nerez proposed more checkpoints, monitor and stop the operation of backyard manufacturers and conduct another inventory of firearms.

The Central Visayas region is still enjoying a relatively peaceful situation with a 18.17 percent decline in crimes during the period. (THE FREEMAN)