Police poised to enforce gun ban for coming polls

CEBU, Philippines — The Cebu City Police Office has assured it is ready to implement the gun ban for the duration of the anticipated barangay elections this October.

“We can implement naman yan anytime. Ang hinihintay lang natin ay yung directives,” said Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Senior Superintendent Joel Doria.

The Commission on Elections (Comelec) announced that a nationwide gun ban will take effect on September 23 (Saturday), a month before the expected barangay elections set for October 23.

Doria said that personnel doing random checkpoints during the gun ban are now ready for deployment.

“At a short notice we can generate naman personnel to do a specific job,” Doria said.

He explained that it will be the same as ‘Oplan Sita’ with police conducting random roving patrols and checkpoints in the city to confiscate loose firearms.

“But different hours, kasi pag binanggit kung saang lugar anong oras, hindi na dadaan dun yung mga may dala. Definitely iiwas na yun,” Doria said.

As for the provincial police, the chief of the Provincial Intelligence Branch (PIB) echoed the city director’s statement, saying they are making efforts to clean up the province of unlicensed firearms.

“Actually, wala pa gyud ingun nakadawat og saktong memo or order gyud sa taas, pero kami nag-continue mi og kuan sa loose firearms, mao ni directive sa taas,” Superintendent Joie Yape, Jr.  said.

He said that ‘Operation Katok’ is being implemented to urge gun owners to surrender expired firearms.

Yape said that Ronda Police Station, where he also serves as officer-in-charge, was able to get hold of more than a hundred loose firearms which were voluntarily surrendered after a month of continuous encouragement.

“Actually, kadtong mga pusil, daghan na ang nagsunod-sunod og surrender. Mao na continue lang,” Yape said.

Yape encouraged public officials and citizens to surrender their unlicensed firearms, just like what the mayor and vice mayor of the town did.

“It is high time nga i-turn over ninyo, nga ipa-surrender tong pusil nga wa ma renew, kay kanang wa ma-renew considered as loose firearms na sya,” Yape said. (FREEMAN)