MANILA, Philippines – Government agencies in the Philippines that have failed to register their firearms will face legal charges and any personnel found with unregistered weapons will be arrested, police said Tuesday as a crackdown on illegal weapons continued ahead of national elections.
The Philippines launched a campaign last year to rein in the large number of illegal guns in the country, saying they fueled election violence, terrorism, insurgency and other crimes.
A gun amnesty program has helped cut the number of unregistered firearms to 400,000 from 1.1 million last year, national police Chief Jesus Verzosa said.
But about 24,000 of those unregistered weapons belong to government agencies, said Chief Superintendent Alfredo Caballes, the police director for firearms and explosives.
Caballes said 1,098 of a total of 1,772 government agencies, local government units and government corporations had failed to registered their guns despite a notice for them to do so before the deadline last November. Those agencies now face charges unless they comply and their employees will be subject to arrest.
"Government units that failed to comply ... do not have any registered firearm and thus are not authorized by law to possess firearms," Verzosa said.
Police said new gun purchases by local government units will also face strict documentation after some weapons issued to police in an autonomous Muslim region in the south were found to be missing.
The guns were believed to have fallen in the hands of a powerful political clan whose members are accused in the Nov. 23 massacre of 57 people in an election convoy in southern Maguindanao province, said police Deputy Director General Edgardo Acuna.
Police say about 98 percent of the gun-related crimes in the Philippines from 2004 to 2008 were committed with unregistered firearms. U.N. figures show the Philippines ranked 10th worldwide in 2005 for homicides involving guns AP - 1 hour 45 minutes ago
