House panel to probe PNP gun licensing process

MANILA, Philippines - The House committee on public order and safety is set to conduct an inquiry into the move of the Philippine National Police (PNP) to centralize the firearms licensing process at its headquarters in Camp Crame amid allegations that the new arrangement was meant to benefit a private courier company, lawmakers said yesterday.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez filed a resolution seeking an investigation into the decision of the PNP leadership to centralize the firearms licensing process, a move he described as “going back to the dark ages.”

“This (centralization) is crazy,” Rodriguez told The STAR. “When everybody is decentralizing to bring government services closer to the people, the PNP is making things hard for their clients and constituents.”

“We will also investigate persistent reports that the move, meant to benefit a private courier company, appears to be dubious and apparently put up for the purpose of bagging the contract to deliver all firearms-related documents all over the country,” he said.

Bungled IRR for firearms law

Negros Occidental Rep. Jeffrey Ferrer, chairman of the committee, said the matter should be investigated as the PNP has also apparently bungled the drafting of the implementing rules and regulations (IRR) of Republic Act 10591 or the new firearms law.

 â€œThe IRR apparently does not help flesh out the law but only make things difficult and confusing,” Ferrer said, adding most, if not all, legitimate gun owners are law-abiding citizens.

Rodriguez said from his district alone, he has received numerous complaints from legitimate private firearms holders on the procedures that they said made the process more expensive and tedious but gave no additional security value for both the government and gun owners.

Under the new procedure, all applicants for renewal and new firearms licenses in the provinces would have to go to Camp Crame to have their documents processed.

Circumventing the SC

Rodriguez said while the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order (TRO) on the centralization of the gun licensing procedures, the PNP has apparently circumvented the order.

He said in the case of the issuance of the licenses and PTCs, the PNP Firearms and Explosives Office (FEO) reopened its regional offices but all approvals would still have to be done in Camp Crame, which means the PNP will still avail of the private courier service.

Earlier, a plunder complaint was filed against PNP chief Director General Alan Purisima and FEO head Chief Superintendent Napoleon Estilles before the Office of the Ombudsman in connection with a P100-million contract with WerFast Documentary Agency Inc., which was tapped to be the official courier of gun licenses, permits to carry guns outside the residence and other related documents.

The existence of the agreement with WerFast came to the public’s attention after Purisima shut down all the satellite offices of the FEO around the country, centralized the processing of gun licenses at the FEO’s head office at Camp Crame and appointed WerFast as the sole delivery service of the PNP for the firearms licenses, complainant Glenn Gerard Ricafranca said.