Santiago City beefs up police with new firearms

SANTIAGO CITY — The city government has acquired more than 150 firearms, including high-powered ones, to strengthen its 135-man police force in the war against criminality.

Besides an initial 20 Russian-made AK-47s, the city government also purchased four submachine guns for the Special Weapon and Tactics (SWAT) team, two sniper rifles and 70 caliber .45 pistols.

Mayor Amelita Navarro said they decided to procure the firearms amid rising cases of robberies, kidnappings for ransom and other crimes and the illegal drug trade.

Of this Isabela city’s 135 policemen, only 35 have service firearms, most of them handguns, and worse, these guns are "old and unreliable," Navarro said.

Because of lack of firearms, she said off-duty cops turn over or lend their handguns to their on-duty colleagues.

"We need these firearms to enable our police to prevent rising crimes in the city. We have to protect our people from criminal syndicates, in so doing we need to equip our protectors with reliable firearms," she said.

Navarro said even kidnap-for-ransom gangs are now reportedly operating in the city.

She cited the recent kidnappings of children of two Filipino-Chinese businessmen who had to shell out at least P10 million for their release.

"These were never reported to the police for fear that the captors might kill (the children). But I know personally these cases," she said.   

She also bewailed the tag that the city has become the transshipment point of illegal drugs in Cagayan Valley.

"How can we move economically if we are all living in fear? How can we roam safely with criminals just lurking nearby? We have to stop them and the only way to do this is to arm our policemen," she said.

Navarro said the city needs to secure itself from criminals since it is the region’s commerce and trade hub, hosting multimillion-peso firms and more than 20 big commercial banks.

"No argument about it, we are the most progressive city in the region. But hand in hand with this, we are one of the most vulnerable to criminal syndicates," she said.

But Vice Mayor Armando Tan, one of those who opposed the firearms’ purchase, said the funds should have been used instead to build more roads, schoolhouses and health facilities.

"We don’t need these items now. There are more pressing needs to attend to… Besides we are not in a war zone for us to warrant the acquisition of high-power firearms like the AK-47s and submachine guns," he said.

Chief Superintendent Jefferson, Cagayan Valley police director, lauded the city government’s move, saying the assistance to the police was very timely considering the limited funds of the Philippine National Police for the firearms of its more than 100,000 personnel.