PNP to proceed with P1.5-B rifle procurement

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippine National Police (PNP) is on a buying spree.

The PNP is slated to procure assault rifles or long firearms worth P1,516,125,000 as part of its Capability Enhancement Program (CEP).

The STAR learned that PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima has signed the PNP plans to proceed with the procurement of the firearms.

“The assault rifle fund will be sourced from the CEP 2012 with P501,475,000, CEP 2013 with P130,845,000, and operational transformation plan worth P883,805,000 or for a total of P1,516,125,000,” a police source told The STAR.

The PNP earlier scrapped an alleged questionable P391-million procurement of 3,330 assault rifles for the police after President Aquino himself noticed the deal to be overpriced.

Based on the President’s own Google search, the price of the rifle should only be at most P40,000 apiece and not P80,000. The original price of the rifle was P150,000, and then it went down to P119,000.

The PNP Supply Management Division and the Directorate for Logistics were instructed to further study the specifications for the assault rifles. 

Last September, Director Arnulfo Perez, chief of the Directorate for Logistics and vice chairman of the Bids and Awards Committee, said the PNP might bid out the combined 1,500 and 1,800 assault rifles with the same budget.

Perez said the 1,500 assault rifles, once procured, will be assigned to members of the Special Action Force, while the 1,800 long firearms will be given to members of the Mobile Forces. 

He added the PNP will utilize the same budget of P178, 332,000 and P213, 998,400 for the same quantity of 1,500 and 1,800 assault rifles and 360 rounds of magazines.

Interior and Local Government Secretary Mar Roxas has revealed that the DILG and the PNP would procure some 2,500 units of patrol vehicles worth P2.08 billion to increase police visibility, mobility and crime-fighting ability.

Roxas assured an “open, transparent and fair bidding” process before senior executives of about a dozen car manufacturers and dealers whom he invited to the PNP headquarters at Camp Crame to show them what the PNP is specifically looking for.

The PNP is ready to distribute to policemen 12,000 of the 59,904 units of Generation 4 Glock 17 firearms after the firearms passed the qualification test by the technical working group.

The 59,904 pistols were procured by the PNP for P1.198 billion, the biggest procurement of firearms in PNP history.