Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office
CEBU CITY, Philippines — Police will be targeting in the coming days at least 3,000 owners of guns in Cebu City, whose licenses were not renewed.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Wilbert Parilla, deputy director for operations of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), is calling on the at least 3,000 gun owners, whose firearm licenses were not renewed, to turn over these firearms to the police stations so that their names would not be included in the target list of the CCPO.
Parilla said that search warrants would be served on these gun owners if they would not renew the licenses of their firearms or turn over the firearms to the police stations.
He said that gun owners should renew the licenses of these firearms, which had to be renewed every two years.
To renew license of their firearms, Parilla said the gun owners would need to undergo a neurological examination to assess how capable they would be to possess firearms.
“If they are still processing documents considering nga ang usa sa requirements sa atoang LTOPF is nuero exam which is face to face as of now, gi cancel naman, but next week, mubalik nasad ni siya. So while waiting, pwedeng i turn over usa sa stations kung asa sila nagpuyo,” Parilla said.
(If they are still processing the documents, considering that one of the requirements of the LTOPF is a nuero exam, which is face-to-face and as of now has been canceled, but next week this will return. So while waiting (to undergo the test), they can turn over their guns for now (to the police station) near their residences.)
However, this is only one of the several requirements needed as stated under the Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act.
He also reminded those owners, who had plans to sell their firearms, that they could not easily put this on sale if the buyer had no license to also possess firearms.
To address this, Parilla said that they had been regularly conducting their Oplan Katok, where they would personally go to the owners to ask them to surrender their firearms or help with their gun license renewal.
During Oplan Katok, the gun owner with an expired license is asked to renew it. If the owner decides to just surrender his firearm, he will be given an acknowledgment receipt.
From the September 11 police operation that they conducted, Parilla said that they arrested at least 16 individuals for the possession of illegal firearms.
He further said that they were intensifying their operations against illegal firearms, especially that the election was drawing near.
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