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Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronaldo Puno has urged gun holders in Ilocos provinces to avail of the government’s one-month amnesty on registration of unlicensed firearms starting October 1.

Puno aired his appeal when he was a guest of honor and speaker during the Regional Peace and Order Council (RPOC) held in Laoag City last Wednesday.

Puno said the Philippine National Police (PNP) has pegged the country’s number of loose firearms to 1.2 million which are in the hands of organized crime groups, the New Peoples' Army and the general population.

“These loose firearms are part of the problem on criminality because these firearms had largely contributed to the rising number of crimes in the country,” Puno said.

The secretary is hoping for the reduction on the number of unregistered guns by 50 percent after Executive Order 817 or the National Gun Control Program takes effect from October 1 to 31 this year.

Meanwhile, Regional Police Director, Chief Superintendent Ramon V. Gatan said the Philippines ranked 10th in the world with the highest number of homicide cases at 97.7 percent, all of which were committed with the use of loose firearms.

In Ilocos Region, the PNP accounted 26,864 unregistered firearms in the hands of threat groups, criminal elements and civilian gun holders.

Shooting incidents remained a major police concern in four Ilocos provinces due to the presence of hired guns and loose firearms.

However, the regional PNP records showed a drop in shooting incidents from 286 in a period of January to July last year to 224 during the same period this year.

Gatan cited the steady number of shooting incidents to the difficult economic condition that the communities face forcing them to commit crimes to survive.

Police units have been implementing random checkpoints in the provinces focusing on motorists riding in tandem on board motorcycles due to their frequent involvement in shooting incidents. (PNA)

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