PUERTO PRINCESA CITY, Palawan — “Oplan Katok”, the Philippine National Police’s (PNP) door-to-door campaign to address firearms with expired registration, has confiscated three loose and 13 voluntarily surrendered firearms in Palawan province.
“These confiscated guns and those surrendered are part of our campaign against loose firearms in conjunction with the synchronized Barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections. We want to control illegal firearms,” Palawan Police Director Senior Supt. Gabriel Lopez said in a media briefing on Friday afternoon.
Lopez said the election gun ban is supported by their province-wide 24/7 patrols and by their established checkpoints in every municipality in Palawan.
On April 25, a search warrant served by police authorities in Barangay Marangas, Bataraza, confiscated one .45-caliber Colt MK14 pistol with a serial number, two magazines, and eight live ammunition from 38-year-old Noel Sarimones.
He also surrendered a homemade 12-gauge shotgun with eight live ammunition, and also a fabricated 5.56-caliber gun with 10 live ammunition.
Lopez said on April 24, one loaded short pistol, another fabricated 12-gauge shotgun, three spent shells, a converted .22-caliber pistol, and a chainsaw were also confiscated from Jonathan Rosal of Barangay Alimanguan, San Vicente.
Cases for violation of Republic Act No. 10591 or the Comprehensive Law on Firearms and Ammunition had already been filed against the two suspects at the Palawan Prosecutor’s Office.
In total, the confiscated and surrendered firearms were from Bataraza which has two, Quezon municipality has five firearms, Araceli and El Nido have two each, and Dumaran and Taytay towns have one each.
Lopez called on firearms owners who have not renewed their registration to “safe-deposit” them to the police instead of keeping them at home or carrying them outside.
“It’s better that they surrender them to us if they have not renewed them. If they’ve applied for re-issuance of registration, then they can withdraw their surrendered firearms from us,” he said. (PNA)
