Fixers charge 500% for gun license

MANILA, Philippines - Fixers are reportedly charging private gun owners about five times the actual cost of a gun license to have their firearms registered with the Firearms and Explosives Office (FEO) of the Philippine National Police (PNP).

A source said a fixer can collect as much as P7,500 for each firearm they register, an amount that is 500 percent higher than the P1,600 fee set by the FEO for a gun license.

“These fixers are also partly to blame for so many firearms registered by fictitious individuals. They are now out to paint a negative impression on the centralized gun licensing being implemented by the FEO on orders of PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima,” the source said.

The source said some gun owners opt to pay for the convenience of not having to personally appear before the FEO to register the firearm and avoid subjecting themselves to neuropsychiatric and drug tests.

The stricter process for firearms registration has virtually rendered the FEO headquarters in Camp Crame a “ghost town,” the insider said. Only police and civilian employees are present – in the past, the FEO headquarters used to be crowded, according to the source.

Some sectors have criticized Purisima’s decision to close all satellite offices of the Civil Security Group, tasked to process the licensing of firearms across the country.

The PNP also decided to have firearms licenses delivered to the registered residence of gun owners to ensure they are not fictitious. The program was initiated after the FEO learned that more than 60,000 license holders were fictitious, officials said. There are about 1.7 million registered guns in the FEO.

However, many gun holders complained of the non-delivery of their licenses by Werfast Documentary Agency, which has ceased operations.

FEO head Chief Superintendent Louie Oppus refused to comment on reports about the fixers and maintained that the PNP has initiated moves to cleanse the database of gun holders.

Oppus said the centralized gun licensing is only temporary. “It is not to make a life of gun holders miserable but make the records (gun licenses) right. We are cleansing the records of registered gun holders. It is the right of the government to implement the law.”

Since 2011, the PNP has implemented Oplan Katok, a program designed to remind delinquent gun holders to renew the registration of their firearms or be charged for possessing loose firearms.

Through Oplan Katok, the PNP discovered that thousands of individuals registered their guns using fictitious names and addresses.