PNP to acquire 27,000 firearms

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines - The Philippine National Police (PNP) will be acquiring 27,000 M4 firearms as part of upgrading the firearms of the police forces in the country, a senior police director said.

Police Director Juanito Vaño, PNP Deputy Chief for Logistics, said the procurement has been ongoing for the acquisition of the firearms and patrol jeeps, with the purchase already in the procurement service of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM).

Vaño said that Interior and Local Government Secretary Manuel Roxas and Police Director General Alan Purisima issued an order to follow the strict and tedious government procurement law to ensure that the acquisition of the equipment will not go to waste.

“The chief of PNP's instruction is to follow the tedious procurement law because he doesn’t want these equipment to end up only as court evidence. This one, we are making sure the process is right,” Vaño said.

He said the procurement of 27,000 long firearms include the 5.56-millimeter M4 rifles with 14.5 inches barrel amounting about P1.62 billion while the total cost of about 2,000 patrol jeeps is estimated about P1.8 billion.

Meanwhile, Vaño said the PNP has also started the construction of municipal and city police stations and provincial police offices under the PNP development projects.

He said the police station which is classified as type B or C class have been upgraded to have complete facilities such as lock-up cells and other service sections. 

Vaño said the police stations will go to areas which has no police station yet, while those with already police stations will be upgraded.