3,000 guns seized so far

POLICE arrested over the weekend 29 individuals carrying firearms, bringing to close to 3,000 the number of persons held for violating the election gun ban.

The Philippine National Police (PNP) yesterday said a total of 2,901 firearms and over 24,000 rounds of ammunition had been seized by police at checkpoints and in raids since the gun ban started on Jan. 13.

“The police will continue carrying out security operations to ensure that the midterm elections will be safe, orderly and credible,” said PNP spokesperson Chief Supt. Generoso Cerbo Jr.

A total of 2,958 persons had been arrested for carrying guns outside their residences without the appropriate permit from the Commission on Elections (Comelec).

Among those arrested were 39 policemen, 20 soldiers and 128 security guards.

Cerbo said PNP personnel who violated the Comelecimposed gun ban would face administrative and criminal charges. If found guilty, they would be dropped from the rolls.

He said security guards could lose their licenses for breaking the prohibition.

Besides firearms, the PNP also confiscated 910 bladed weapons and around 700 grenades and other explosives.

Last week, the PNP deployed 30,000 additional policemen to the 15 provinces that the force and the Comelec had dubbed as election hot spots.