Cops recover 216 guns
By Nancy C. Carvajal
Philippine Daily Inquirer
First Posted 22:16:00 06/22/2010
OPLAN BAWI’
MORE THAN 200 FIREARMS have been recovered from former Quezon City policemen through the Philippine National Police’s “Oplan Bawi (take back)” program.
Chief Supt. Benjardi Mantele, Quezon City Police District (QCPD) director, said Tuesday that the long and short firearms were recovered from former lawmen who had retired, resigned or had been dismissed from the service.
In addition, some of the guns were returned by policemen who had been assigned to other areas.
Mantele said the recovered firearms would be distributed to new policemen once these are properly documented.
The QCPD chief said Oplan Bawi was launched two years ago and they have recovered 216 firearms since then.
According to Insp. Maricar Taqueban, QCPD information officer, they would file malversation charges against former city policemen who would refuse to turn over their weapons.
She said that they have so far filed 80 cases against errant lawmen who had refused to give back the firearms issued to them despite repeated demands.
“It’s government property; they know they have to return the gun after their tour of duty in the city,” Taqueban said.
She added that the highest ranking official on their list of errant policemen was an official with the rank of superintendent.
Taqueban explained that a team had been tasked to personally retrieve the firearms from the policemen.
“We conduct a house to house retrieval as part of the intensified campaign against unreturned guns,” she said.
She added that a 9mm gun, the type usually issued to policemen, costs around P20,000.
Taqueban also explained that policemen who are assigned to other areas are required under the law to turn over their issued weapons.
“They are required to surrender their weapons because in their new assignments, they will be issued another firearm,” she said.
So perhaps the National Firearms Control Program of the PNP should be directed at their own ranks. 216 loose firearms recovered from cops thus farm but we don’t know the TOTAL number of unreturned or unaccounted guns.
One common practice among some cops is to “clone” their issue FAs with “El Cheapos” or cosmetically-enhanced paltiks. They turn these in at the end of their term/assignments and “keep the originals”. I pity the rookies who gets to inherit these pieces of junk.
Yes, I heard they do this. Also one common gimmick in court evidence is that they bribe the court personnel to exchange guns which are in court custody for locally made replicas which are etched with the same serial numbers. So the case if forgotten and archived, and in the meantime, the real gun is out in the streets in the hands of the criminal.
Isn’t there standard protocol for handing over firearms when being reassigned or leaving the force? Why wasn’t it followed? How can the PNP expect to target crime effectively if it cannot follow its own procedures?
There are existing protocols. Thge problem is the implementation. There are times the property custodians themselves cannot tell the difference between the genuine item and a fake. Or, they are “convinced” to look the other way.
The answer is negligence and corruption. A lot of these firearms are declared as lost or stolen.
MOst retirees do not surrender their issued firearms because they are no longer with them. Officially they are all lost as attested by the affidavits of loss filed by the personnel to whom they were issued. Try to visit some gun stores around Camp Crame and that not so famous Cavite based gun store, you will see a host of 92fs slides and other spares part being sold to the public, sometimes even the whole firearm is being sold, of course, with tampered serial numbers. The same is true with M16s. In fact, the proliferation of the government issued elisco M16s have become so rampant that sometime in the past the PNP decided to register and license them even if it should be confiscated from their actual possessors. Most these f.a.’s were stripped for spare parts which are available for sale to the general public. Due to poverty, their government issued firearm is their instant insurance during times of need and this becomes possible because it takes just one affidavit of loss.
So basically what you’re saying is that the PNP itself is one of the main sources of illegal firearms that it’s making a big show of combatting? I don’t suppose we’ll ever get actual figures on this, right?
Funny how the PNP would value their beretta at just a meager 20,000. Pag for retrieval, undervalued, pero pag for procurement laging overpriced.
It’s good that they are doing something to retrieve unsurrendered guns.
Dami sa mga new graduates nila from training, wala beng beng. I personally know someone who had to purchase his own FA dahil batuta lang issue sa kanila.
Yes that’s why a lot of these police rookies are victimized by unscrupulous gun dealers who sell them firearms on installment at very high interest rates. A well know AFAD dealer was recently implicated in this scam.
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