MCPO presents 105 surrendered loose firearms to Vega
At total of 105 surrendered loose firearms are presented to Police Brigadier General Roque Eduardo Vega, the new Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) director, during his command visit to the Mandaue City Police Office today, October 11. | Photo by Mae Fhel Gom-os
MANDAUE CITY, Cebu — A total of 105 surrendered loose firearms were presented to Police Brigadier General Roque Eduardo Vega, the new Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7) director, during his command visit to the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO) on Monday, October 11.
Police Lieutenant Colonel Eloveo Marquez, MCPO deputy city director for operations, said the 72 pistols, 23 revolvers, and 10 long firearms/rifles and shotguns were those surrendered to police since the start of the Oplan Katok in 2019.
Oplan Katok is a program of the Philippine National Police (PNP), where policemen would go house-to-house to visit firearm holders, who had not renewed their license yet.
Marquez said these were just among the accomplishments that they had presented to Vega.
He said such loose firearms were surrendered in two ways — one it was turned over to the police for safekeeping and, two, it was surrendered in favor of the government.
The MCPO official further said they were giving firearm holders at least a month to renew their license to own and possess the firearm if they still were interested to have it.
He also said that one holder should secure or renew not just their license to own and possess a firearm, but also its registration.
“Ang katong safekeeping, naa pa na sila’y interest sa ilang firearms. Problema lang is naglisod sila sa pag renew sa pagkakaron tungod sa maybe ang koan is, time, wala sila’y time or sometimes problema ana magkuha pa na sila’g neuro, drug tests. Naay mga requirements nga kinahanglan ilang i-comply usa ma renew ang ilahang mga firearms, like gun safety seminars,” said Marquez.
(Those who surrendered their guns for safekeeping, they still have interest in their firearms. The problem is they found it difficult to renew for now because, maybe, time, they don’t have time or sometime, they have problems getting their neuro, drug tests. There are requirements that they would need to comply before they could renew the license like gun safety seminars.)
“But for those naa sad diri nag-surrendered nga in favor na of the government kay dili na sila interested mo possess og firearms and they are not already qualified tiguwang na. Or wa na’y katakos mo-renew sa ilang lisensya so mao na siya’y mga reason nga ilahang i-surrender ang ilahang mga firearms,” he added.
(But there are also those who surrendered their firearms in favor of the government because they were not interested to possess the firearms, and they are not qualified because they are already old. Or they don’t have the capacity to renew their license so that are the reasons they surrendered their firearms.)
Marquez said they just wanted to ensure that the residents in Mandaue City did not hold any loose firearms, which was why he stressed that they were still continuing its implementation.
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