MANILA, Philippines — The Northern Police District (NPD) confiscated 133 loose firearms in a weeklong intensified operation ahead of the holidays in northern Metro Manila.
NPD director Chief Superintendent Rolando Anduyan led the presentation of the confiscated firearms before the National Capital Region Police Office Director Guillermo Eleazar at the NPD headquarters on Friday.
Anduyan vowed to intensify police operations against loose firearms to prevent indiscriminate firing incidents during the holidays, especially on New Year’s Eve.
“We will move two steps forward and remove the tools in our communities to prevent the occurrence of the same incidents wherein lives were lost just because someone fired his gun irresponsibly,” Anduyan said.
The confiscation of the firearms would also pave the way for a peaceful and orderly conduct of the 2019 elections, he added.
Of the 133 loose firearms confiscated from Dec. 8 to 14, 54 were confiscated in Malabon, 39 in Caloocan, 24 in Valenzuela, and 10 in Navotas by the respective police stations. Six of the loose firearms were confiscated by the NPD.
The loose firearms included pistols, revolvers and long firearms.
During the New Year revelry last year, a girl and a boy, both aged 10, were hit by stray bullets that came from a gun duel between two men in Barangay 35, Maypajo, Caloocan. The two children recovered from their wounds.
A year before that, 15-year-old Emilyn Villanueva died when a stray bullet hit her in the head while she was watching the fireworks display in Malabon.