Suspension of gun licenses lifted

The Philippine National Police has lifted the suspension of gun licenses of private individuals, PNP community relations chief Director Ricardo de Leon announced yesterday.

The PNP Firearms and Explosives Division (FED) has also resumed processing applications for new permits to carry firearms outside residence (PTCFORs).

The move was made amid reports that President Arroyo failed to issue an executive order cancelling all PTCFORs.

"We will start processing (the PTCFORs) today, but we have to wait for the issuance of new, ATM-card-like cards. (Gun owners) cannot carry (their firearms) until they secure the new permits," De Leon told The STAR.

Once the new gun permits are issued, the PNP hopes to be rid of the plague of fake permits that proliferated prior to the gun ban and order for the cancellation of PTCFORs issued by President Arroyo to the PNP two weeks ago.

"The new gun license will be like an ATM card, with security proof," De Leon said. "(It is) tamper-free and serialized. It will be signed and screened by the secretariat and the chief of the PNP."

The PNP will also apply new Special Bank Receipts to ensure that license fees will go straight to government coffers.

Amid criticisms from different sectors, PNP Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. ordered the PNP to ease up on the conduct of mobile checkpoints in Metro Manila.

PNP operations director Chief Superintendent Vidal Querol said the PNP district directors would have the discretion of setting up mobile checkpoints.

"Mobile checkpoints may be dismantled so as not to gain semblance (of being a) permanent fixture of police operations," Querol said in a memorandum.

De Leon said the mobile checkpoints have been scaled down upon Ebdane’s orders, though Ebdane has left the matter of how much these checkpoints will be scaled down to the district commanders.

However, De Leon said, at least 24 persons, including a policeman, have been arrested nationwide and their assorted illegal firearms were seized by the police.

The mobile checkpoints, De Leon said, "have been scaled down. They ‘may be’ dismantled at the discretion of the (district) commanders and set up only at the crime prone areas."

In his memorandum to all field commanders, Querol said the nationwide gun ban has thwarted some gun-related crimes so far.

Querol said in the same memorandum that the PNP field commanders may set up fresh checkpoints only in support of operations and hot pursuit, upon coordination with their headquarters.

The PNP operations chief also reminded all unit commanders to "observe strict observance of human rights and visual search doctrines."

Ebdane earlier ordered the setup and operation of mobile checkpoints in Metro Manila, following an the issuance of the President’s orders to the PNP.

These checkpoints were criticized as reminiscent of martial law – and one of those who slammed the checkpoints was Ilocos Norte Rep. Imee Marcos, daughter of the late President Ferdinand Marcos. The elder Marcos declared martial law on Sept. 21, 1972 and lifted it nominally in 1981.

Legal issues

Senate Minority Leader Vicente Sotto III revealed yesterday that the ban on the carrying of firearms previously covered by permits issued by the PNP has no legal basis.

Sotto said this after a hearing conducted by the Senate committee on public order on the gun ban that Mrs. Arroyo has ordered the PNP to carry out. The President also earlier ordered the PNP to cancel all PTCFORs.

The President, he said, issued her directives to the PNP in a speech at Camp Crame two weeks ago, but has not issued an executive order on the gun ban. "Her speech is not equivalent to a law and the consensus in the hearing is that she must have issued an executive order."

Sotto said the representatives of the PNP and the Department of Justice admitted that they have no legal basis to use as a defense against lawsuits that gun owners whose weapons are covered by PTCFORs may file against them as they implement the President’s order.

"That means that these citizens, who obtained and paid for their permits in good faith, can continue carrying their guns and, if caught by the police, can question the legal basis of policemen in enforcing the gun ban," Sotto said.

To obviate legal questions, Sotto recommended that the PNP allow the permits to expire, then strictly screen applicants for PTCFOR renewal.

This way, he said, the government can also avoid accusations that it is arbitrary and oppressive in canceling the PTCFORs that cost P4,150 each.

According to PNP officials, some 32,000 police and military personnel, government employees and civilians have been issued permits to carry their firearms outside their homes.

Sotto said gun owners whose permits have been canceled have reason to demand the reimbursement of the PTCFOR fees.

In a related development, Senate President Franklin Drilon and Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. yesterday filed a bill that seeks to strictly regulate the carrying of firearms.

Senate Bill 2480 seeks to penalize persons caught illegally carrying guns with a prison term of six to 10 years and a fine of P20,000 to P100,000.

Drilon and Pimentel said the increasing incidence of crime involving the use of guns requires a strict gun ban law.

‘Verifiable threats’

The gun ban, however, is not total. Malacañang reiterated earlier statements that PTCFOR applicants with "verifiable death threats" could be qualified for exemption from the cancellation of PTCFORs.

However, the PNP is expected to be much stricter in its issuance of gun licenses and permits.

De Leon said applicants for gun licenses and PTCFORs will have to undergo a tight screening process, in addition to regular procedures that include putting the applicants through drug and neurological examinations.

"The gun ban is grounded on the duty and responsibility of our government to protect and ensure the safety and well-being of our people," Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye said, adding that this purpose "will be defeated if there are too many exemptions."

In a press briefing at the Palace, Bunye said Mrs. Arroyo was specific that the exemptions should only be given to people with "verifiable death threats."

He said "you have to do this by affidavit or by presenting witnesses (who will say) you are really the subject of a death threat."

Everybody, Bunye said, "wants to invoke that (exemption), even if there is no verifiable death threat." – With Christina Mendez