Loose Firearms an Issue that Should Be Faced- Secretary Puno

Secretary Ronnie Puno of the Department of Interior and Local Government has called for the proper regulation of loose firearms. He believes that loose firearms which are in the possession of organized crime groups, the New People’s Army and in the possession of the general public is a major reason why crimes are in the country are growing. By some estimates, it is widely believed that the number of loose firearms in the country is pegged at 1.2 million.

Because of the possible crimes that may arise due to these loose firearms, the secretary added his voice in pushing for the need to regulate the loose firearms in the country. Just last week, the secretary called on the owners of the loose firearms to register their firearms in time for the government’s scheduled one-month amnesty. The amnesty is set to begin October 1. The scheduled gun amnesty is actually part of the Executive Order 817 or the national gun control program which will last for the whole month of October. Secretary Puno is confident that the amnesty program for October will cut the number of loose and unregistered guns in the country by half. Puno added that the department will start ahead of schedule of the implementation and they will now process applications for loose firearms and they also process the renewal of expired licenses on August 1. This will give the Philippine National Police just enough time to accommodate gun holders. He made this statement during the peace and order council meeting among the regional executives of the provinces of Ilocos, La Union and Pangasinan.

Secretary Puno also repeated this call during his visit to Davao City. He urged owners of unregistered guns in the region to avail of the amnesty program until the last day of October. He added that there will be stiffer penalties that await the violator the moment the deadline has elapsed. Puno said that the offense of carrying an unregistered gun is a non-bailable offense. The secretary conceded that owning a firearm in some areas of Mindanao is part of culture.

The need for the regulation of guns is clearly needed since the country is now ranked 10th in the world with the highest number of homicide cases, and around 97.7 percent of these are committed using unregistered guns.