Final general firearms amnesty in October
BACOLOD CITY — With more than a million loose firearms still to be accounted for in the whole country, the Philippine Nationa Police is set to implement Executive Order 817 as ordered by no less than President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
In Negros Occidental, the PNP will intensify the campaign against unlicensed firearms, where 97% of crimes committed in the country involved loose guns based on statistics, in the province through the conduct of checkpoint as well as search and seizure operations.
Police Chief Inspector Rico Santotome Jr, public information officer of NOPPO, stressed that a Final General Firearms Amnesty will be implemented for a period of one month from October 1 to 31, 2009.
Santotome added that all individual and judicial entities may renew their expired licenses and/or register their unregisterd firearms with the PNP at Camp Alferdo Montelibano in Camingawan, Bacolod City.
Negros Occidental PNP provincial director Police Senior Superintendent Manuel Felix said that all loose firearms holders, be they with expired licenses and/or unregistered firearms, are encouraged by NOPPO and are given an opportunity to obtain the required firearms license through the Final General Firearms Amnesty.
This would reduce the chance of loose firearms being used in election related crimes which may derail the realization of a peaceful, orderly and credible electoral exercise in 2010 added the NOPPO director.