Customs seeks P5 million to buy 200 firearms

MANILA, Philippines – Bureau of Customs deputy commissioner for enforcement Horacio Suansing Jr. yesterday admitted that there is a shortage of service firearms for Customs police and last March, they had conveyed to Department of Budget and Management (DBM) Secretary Rolando Andaya Jr. their request for a budget of P5 million to purchase some 200 weapons.

“As of now, some of our Customs police do not have firearms. And they use their personal cellular phones for their work. It is easier for them to buy cellular phones because these are far cheaper than buying their own firearms,” Suansing said.

With P5,000, they could already purchase their own mobile telephone units, while a short firearm could be five times more expensive or about P25,000.

“The Customs police is part of law enforcement and we conduct field work. We need guns,” he stressed, adding that they should not be defenseless in their daily job of protecting and maintaining peace and order inside the bureau.

But he said that when their Customs police officers have assignments or operations, they have the time to prepare and get weapons from their armory.

Suansing said the BOC sometimes receives donations of confiscated firearms, such as the 30 units of Jericho .9mm pistols that were seized by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and donated to the BOC-Enforcement Security Service (ESS) in 2004.

Apart from service firearms, Suansing said they also asked the DBM to allow them to hire 231 Customs police officers to replace those who have retired or left the bureau since 2004.

“We have not hired a Customs police officer since 2004 (because of) the freeze hiring of employees in government,” the BOC official added.

Among the vacant positions are that of special agent 1, the lowest rank, with a monthly salary of a little above P10,000. – Evelyn Macairan