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Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Barangay chiefs can't tote M16 rifles?
CEBU CITY -- Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña will not have to do a hard sell to convince police officials of his plan to provide mountain barangay leaders with M16 rifles.
Chief Superintendent Silverio Alarcio Jr., Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 director, said he is okay with the plan as long as the regulations on firearm use allow it.
Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Chief Melvin Gayotin shares Alarcio's view.
He said barangay captains should undergo marksmanship training and must be oriented with proper discipline in handling firearms.
"There's no problem with me, as long as they are trained," Gayotin said.
As peace officers, barangay captains can carry firearms as long as they comply with PNP rules and regulations, said Department of Interior and Local Government 7 Assistant Director Pedro Noval in an interview with radio dyLA Monday.
Osmeña also allayed fears on the misuse of the firearms, after he announced last Saturday during the Association of Barangay Councils general assembly that he will arm the chiefs from the mountain barangays with rifles.
Not all of the 31 mountain barangay captains will get the firearm, since they will be judged as to how well they will fare during training, which will include proficiency and gun handling lecture.
P2-million budget
Not all are also interested, as there were those who already said in random interviews that they will turn the offer down.
A P2-million budget for the rifles will be charged to one of the City's supplemental budgets.
In a press conference Monday, the mayor said mountain barangays could serve as entry points for those out to disrupt the upcoming Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit in December.
He said arming the barangay captains will boost their capability to police their respective turf.
"The move is to improve police capability of the barangay captains. We'll have to try and see. It's natural to have fear of possible abuses by barangay captains," Osmeña said.
Alarcio, in a separate interview with dyLA, said he understood the mayor's concern for the welfare of residents in mountain barangays and admired his active stand on peace and order.
Permits
The regulations of the Firearms Explosives Security Agencies and Guards Supervisory Section (Fesagss) state that barangay captains can be issued permits to own an M16, Fesagss Chief Rey Lyndon Lawas earlier said.
However, he said they could not take such firearms outside their residences.
They are allowed to carry short firearms, though.
Lawas said they could also use M16 rifles when accompanied by policemen in hot pursuit of criminals.
CCPO provided police detachments to selected areas in mountain barangays and assigned personnel of the Security and Service Group to provide security.
There are close to 800,000 residents and an estimated 1.5 million transients in Cebu City and the CCPO only has manpower of more than 800, Gayotin said.
The present ratio is one policeman for every 835 people.
Gayotin said the ideal ratio should be one policeman for every 500 people in Cebu City.
Volunteers
He said they have tapped the help of volunteer groups, including those in the parishes, to solve the problem of peace and order.
"They (volunteer groups) have helped reduced the crimes in the city," Gayotin said.
Alarcio, for his part, admitted that they could not provide the additional 1,000 personnel the mayor was asking for, saying all police offices in the region lacked personnel.
While there was an ongoing recruitment of police trainees, this is not enough to cover the shortage.
The number of recruits will also be split among the police offices in Central Visayas.
But before they are assigned to a police office, they must first complete several years of training at the Regional Mobile Group.
He said that if the situation required it, an office in Camp Crame could determine if the need for Armalite rifles fit the regulations of firearm use.
Asked if these can be issued to barangay tanods instead, Alarcio said this could not be unless the permit for the firearm bore the tanod's name. (MEA/RHM/JST of Sun.Star Cebu/With JFT of Superbalita)
(June 6, 2006 issue)
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