Padpao asks SC to stop Comelec gun ban vs security agencies

THE Philippine Association of Detective and Protective Agency Operators Inc. (Padpao) in Central Visayas has asked the Supreme Court to stop the Commission Elections (Comelec) from implementing the election gun ban on security agencies.

Padpao, a group of private security agencies, on Monday asked the SC to issue a temporary restraining order (TRO) against the Comelec’s requirement for security agencies to file for exemption from the gun ban.

Padpao legal counsel Edgar Gica said they could not understand why the Comelec would still require security agencies to apply for exemption when the Supreme Court already ruled in 2009 that bringing of arms by security guards within the immediate vicinity of their place of work is not prohibited and does not require prior written approval from Comelec.

Gica claimed that seeking a gun ban exemption might just be a money-making scheme of the Comelec as security agencies are required to pay a filing fee of P50 for each of their security guard whom they wished to be exempted from the gun ban.

Meanwhile, the town mayor of Sibonga and a municipal councilor of Sogod surrendered their firearms to their respective local police units to show support to the Comelec’s campaign for “safe and fair” local and national polls on May 9.

On Tuesday, Sibonga Mayor Lionel Bacaltos, a last term mayor now running for town councilor under the Alayon party, turned over his 9 mm sub-machine gun to the town police. The firearm is owned by the Sibonga municipal government but was assigned to Bacaltos, said PO3 Nap Kelly Segarra of the Sibonga police.

Sogod Councilor Gamaliel Lumapas, who is seeking reelection under the local party Bakud, also turned over on Tuesday to the local police a service firearm with an expired license, a .45 mm caliber pistol, according to a report from the Sogod police received yesterday by the Cebu Provincial Police Office (CCPO).