CEBU CITY, Philippines — Ten incumbent barangay captains in Carcar City turned over their firearms with expired licenses during the police’s Oplan Katok on Saturday, Feb. 11.
Ten firearms with expired licenses were accounted by the Carcar City police, said Police Lieutenant Colonel Ardioleto Cabagnot, chief of Carcar City Police Station.
Cabagnot refused to divulge the names of these barangay captains for now. They will also continue to talk and visit the remaining five barangay captains in the city to also turnover their firearms with expired licenses.
These firearms are placed under the watch of the city police station while the owners were still processing their permits to carry these guns again.
Oplan Katok, which was started in 2013, is a police operation, where police personnel would visit the houses of residents with expired gun licenses and those suspected to have unlicensed guns.
Cabagnot said that the local government unit purchased these firearms a few years ago, which were intended for the barangay captains as their additional security given the nature of their jobs.
“…kaniadto nipalit sila [LGU] firearm intended sa kapitan. It so happened nga niabot nga expire na. Lisod pod makadisgrasya sila … mas maayo maaccount ang expired firearms para di maproblema ,” Cabagnot said.
(…they (LGU) bought firearms quite a while back for the barangay captains. It so happened that their gun licenses had already expired. It is a difficult situation because they might cause an accident…it will be better if the expired firearms will be accounted for so that there will be no problems for them.)
Cabagnot said that this was also their preparation for the coming barangay election that would happen this October 2023.
Carcar City is a 5th class component city in the province of Cebu. This is composed of 15 barangays namely Bolinawan, Buenavista, Calidngan, Can-asujan, Guadalupe, Liburon, Napo, Ocana, Perrelos, Poblacion I, Poblacion II, Poblacion III, Tuyom, Valencia, Valladolid.
Carcar City is also situated at least 36 km south of Cebu City.
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