MANILA – President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo signed an executive order authorizing the Philippine National Police (PNP) to implement a gun amnesty for loose firearms in preparation for the 2010 elections, a senior Malacanang official announced.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said that under the order, the amnesty is to take effect for four months, as recommended by the PNP, to help ensure that the 2010 local and national elections are clean, orderly and peaceful.
However, Ermita said that the original PNP suggestion to implement the amnesty on July 1 would have to be reset to a later date to comply with certain legal and procedural processes as required by law.
Under the procedure, the office of the executive secretary will assign a number to the executive order and publish it in a nationally-circulated newspaper in the next 15 days before it can be enforced by the PNP, Ermita explained.
In this light, a PNP spokesman said it is likely they  would start implementing the order around July 23 and would last for four months until October 23 this year.
The President’s signing of the executive order, the spokesman said, becomes even more significant as the country prepares for its first-ever attempt to computerize the 2010 polls and wean the country away from its ancient and outmoded method of manual voting and counting of ballots which have given rise to charges of massive cheating and similar anomalies in past electoral exercises.
With the gun amnesty in effect, the spokesman expressed optimism the PNP would be able to collect the estimated 1.1 million loose firearms throughout the country, which have been viewed as a threat to the conduct of peaceful and orderly polls in 2010.
As a “come-on,†the spokesman pointed out that the PNP has allocated the equivalent of $100,000 from its contingency fund to be given out as cash rewards to information that could lead to the seizure of loose firearms.
With such incentives, informants can earn more if the PNP could seize more unlicensed firearms based on the tips given them, according to the spokesman.
The amnesty also covers guns whose licenses have expired and which have not been renewed by legitimate owners, the spokesman added.
But even before the amnesty could take effect, the spokesman disclosed that several registered gun holders have already renewed their expired firearms licenses at the PNP Firearms and Explosives Division.
The spokesman noted that Director General Jesus Verzosa, the PNP chief, has been pushing for the implementation of a gun amnesty for loose firearms in order to minimize election-related violent incidents.
In addition to the amnesty, he said Verzosa would also ask the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to stop issuing exemptions to the gun ban to enable the PNP to implement such ban during the election period.
At the same time, the spokesman said the PNP would submit a bill to Congress, which seeks to increase penalties for illegal possession of firearms, depending on the quantity and caliber of the weapons.
He pointed out that under present laws, arrested suspected members of criminal syndicates, especially those engaged in gun-running and smuggling, could easily post bail and resume their nefarious activities.
For instance, the bill aims to make illegal possession of firearms a non-bailable criminal offense if the arrested suspects are caught carrying a minimum of four high-powered weapons, the spokesman said.
The spokesman expressed hope that if Congress could enact the law by October 23 when the gun amnesty is to end, this would boost the PNP’s continuing campaign against loose firearms even after the 2010 elections.
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