Today marks the exit cum “early retirement” of Gen Jesus Verzosa as Chief of the Philippine National Police. He is replaced by Gen. Raul Bacalzo as the new Chief PNP.

Verzosa’s term will go down in history as one of the worst terms for a Chief PNP. Particularly, his two failed Consultative Gun Summits accomplished nothing by way of a consensus among the gun community regarding reasonable and sound polices and regulations. Policies on carrying firearms became unreasonably stricter such as prohibited inside-the-waistband carry, bag requirement, gun free zones. Licensing fees likewise skyrocketed twice it’s original amount and Likewise the fees for Permits to carry and to transport, while becoming more restrictive and longer to issue, became more expensive by 20%.

Last 2010 election period, Verzosa sponsored and implemented a Total Gun Ban, for the first time in Philippine history. The Total Gun ban turned out to be a catastrophic failure in that in spite of the strict “no exemptions” policy, 970 innocent persons were shot in a bloodbath, among which more than half died. The so-called total gun ban and checkpoints not only failed to resolve the rising criminality, but it made victims of law abiding and honest gun owners who were effectively disarmed and at the mercy of criminals who did not respect the gun ban. The infamous Maguindanao Massacre occurred last year due to refusal of the PNP to provide the necessary protection to the travelling victims, as in fact a number of the accused in that case are themselves police officers.

Perhaps the most disappointing issue of Verzosa was the sell-out of the Filipino Nation to foreign interests. Under his watch, foreign aid was granted to the PNP for its development programs and “model” precincts, and foreign training junkets, in exchange for tighter gun control measures. The International Action Network Against Small Arms (IANSA), The governments of Japan, the EU, and Australia now were allowed to meddle in Philippine internal affairs and became a players in the extremist anti-gun agenda of Verzosa.

Likewise under Verzosa’s watch, a number of his generals and officers were implicated in bringing inordinate amounts of Euros while on  junket trip to Russia. No accounting has yet been presented as to how such large amount of money was in the possession of the travelling police.

Lastly, the failed Manila Hostage rescue incident last month brought our entire nation to international shame due to the ineptitude of the PNP. Under the watch of Verzosa, the PNP miserably failed to rescue foreign hi-jacked hostages in a tourist bus resulting in several of the hostages killed or wounded.