PNP chief ‘institutionalized’ gun license delivery?

MANILA, Philippines - The delivery of firearms licenses to the homes of gun owners was supposed to be optional but Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Alan Purisima reportedly “institutionalized” it, a lawyer said recently.

Coeli Fiel, who represents complainant Glenn Gerard Ricafranca in a plunder case against Purisima, said the memorandum of agreement between the PNP and WerFast Documentary Agency was disadvantageous to gun owners.

Under the agreement, WerFast – the delivery firm commissioned by the PNP to deliver licenses to firearms owners in the country – charged gun owners a delivery fee of P190.

In the agreement, gun owners can opt to pick up their licenses from the PNP’s Firearms and Explosives Office (FEO) or have them delivered to their homes, but Fiel alleged that Purisima made the delivery mandatory.

“There was no option left for gun owners. It was business as usual for Purisima,” Fiel said.

The existence of the agreement with WerFast came to the public’s attention after Purisima shut down all the satellite offices of the FEO around the country, centralized the processing of gun licenses at the FEO’s head office at Camp Crame and appointed WerFast as the sole delivery service of the PNP for the firearms licenses, Ricafranca said.

Fiel claimed that, LBC, the actual courier, charges WerFast only P90 per package, which meant that WerFast earned at least P100 million in the delivery of gun licenses to an estimated one million gun owners in the country.

Fiel urged President Aquino to dig deeper into the allegedly “shady” deal between the PNP and WerFast.

“There should be no favoritism here. If the President is a true advocate of transparency and good governance, then nobody should be exempted,” she said.

Fiel said gun licensing is one of the frontline services of the government that is similar to the Department of Foreign Affairs’ issuance of passports and other documents that must be obtained by a large number of Filipinos.

“It’s more disappointing to know that the applicants are being overcharged by the PNP because it has entered into a contract with a company that is not even qualified to perform the service,” she said.

‘Anomalous’ contract

Ricafranca filed a plunder complaint with the Office of the Ombudsman last April 16 against Purisima and two other police officials for entering into an allegedly anomalous contract with WerFast in 2011.

He argued that WerFast’s certificate of incorporation from the Securities and Exchange Commission was dated Aug. 10, 2011 but the PNP agreement was signed in May 2011, reportedly without any public bidding.

Ricafranca claimed that one of the courier agency’s incorporators is a close associate of Purisima while Enrique Valerio, who represented the PNP in the agreement, was another close friend.

PNP public information office head Chief Superintendent Reuben Theodore Sindac said the Civil Security Group, which supervises the FEO, formally terminated WerFast’s services in March following complaints from gun owners that their licenses were either delivered late or not delivered at all.

Sindac said the PNP is crafting the terms of reference for the accreditation of another courier service.