Peñas: Assets must not carry firearms

DIGO CITY - The mayor of this city has issued a stern warning to law enforcement agencies operating within his area of responsibility to refrain from allowing their assets to carry firearms.

“That is foolishness in the highest order. Why allow those people to carry guns? If they used it in criminal activities the agency handling the asset will now become responsible for his actions,” Peñas said.

The mayor said the order applies to the Philippine National Police (PNP), Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (Pdea).

Peñas said regular agency personnel must carry on its legitimate operations without relying on their respective civilian assets to do it for them. “If something went wrong the government will be deemed accountable for the misdeeds of assets that should not be there in the first place. Do it yourselves, and you have my support whatever lawful actions you will do,” Peñas said during a brief interview inside his office.

He said awaiting for any conclusive investigation reports from the police as to the series of shooting incidents within the city in the past two months.

“I could not draw any conclusion yet. But I can assure you we will not be sleeping on this matter. Digos is (still) generally peaceful,” he said.

Peñas admitted receiving reports on shooting incidents but he refused to divulge anything for security reasons.