PNP chief tells men:Talk with gun holders

BANGUED, Abra – Philippine National Police chief Director-General Nicanor A. Bartolome ordered regional, provincial, city and municipal police officials to reassess their strategies in curbing proliferation of loose firearms in their areas and adapt a diplomatic way of convincing illegal gun holders to surrender their firearms for peaceful and orderly elections in May 2013.

Bartolome, together with Director Samuel B. Diciano of the Directorate for Operations and Chief Supt. Generoso  Cerbo, Jr., witnessed the successful turnover of around 40 licensed firearms and 10 unlicensed guns by 16 incumbent and former Abra provincial, municipal and barangays officials during simple turnover ceremonies held at the Abra provincial police office grounds here a few days ago.

“We are lucky that the system we adapted in Abra was successful. It is just the beginning of our long journey towards convincing people to turnover their firearms, licensed or unlicensed to the police in order to achieve peace in certain conflict areas,” Bartolome told the media.

He added the  strategy employed by the Police Regional Office in the Cordillera in convincing Abra politicians to surrender their guns will be replicated in other conflict areas in the country which he declined to identify pending the conduct of evaluation, validation and assessment by the PNP.

“We will be adopting varying strategies in identified election conflict areas so that we will be able to save on time and resources in pursuing individuals with unlicensed firearms who are considered threats to our peace and order campaign,” he said.

“The PNP is inclined to make next year’s elections the most peaceful and orderly political exercise in the country’s history.It is time to focus our attention to other identified election conflict areas in the different parts of the country.”

He added police officials assigned in different parts of the archipelago must be willing to innovate on strategies and systems being implemented.

“Before we will conduct aggressive police operations just to confiscate the unlicensed firearms that are scattered in various communities, we will still dialogue and consult with our local leaders in order to convince them that surrendering their licensed and unlicensed guns is still the best solution in sustaining our peace and order campaign,” Bartolome stressed.

According to him, the successful implementation of the diplomatic approach in Abra shows “there is still a chance for the province to achieve lasting peace provided  local officials and the people work together towards a common goal instead of waging war against each other.”He said the PNP will be simultaneously implementing the diplomatic approach in their areas of jurisdiction in the coming weeks so that more licensed and unlicensed guns will be surrendered before the campaign period for the May 2013 elections.