PNP halts permits to carry arms in 4 provinces after gun attack on local execs

FILE PHOTO: The black van that carried Vice Mayor Rommel Alameda of Aparri town in Cagayan and his companions sits empty on the side of the road with bullet holes on its doors in Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya on Sunday, February 19, 2023, after gunmen, clad in camouflage informs and using a car with a government plate, shot and killed the passengers. PHOTO COURTESY OF THE NUEVA VIZCAYA PROVINCIAL POLICE OFFICE

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) said Monday that permits to carry firearms in Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, Nueva Vizcaya, as well as parts of North Cotabato, have been suspended.

This developed after separate gun attacks on local government officials that left 10 people dead, including a vice mayor.

PNP spokesperson Jean Fajardo also said that security in the four provinces was on a “heightened alert” level.

“[In] Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, and 63 barangays in North Cotabato, the permit to carry firearms outside of residence has already been suspended, as well as in Nueva Vizcaya,” she said in an ANC interview.

“There [is] random security border control implemented, there are random security checks and checkpoints in those areas to ensure there will be no incident similar to these cases,” she added.

On February 19, Aparri, Cagayan Vice Mayor Rommel Alameda, along with five of his companions, were killed in an ambush in Bagabag town, Nueva Vizcaya.

Two days before, in Wao town in Lanao del Sur, unidentified suspects attacked the convoy of Lanao del Sur Gov. Mamintal Adiong Jr. This February 17 gun assault killed Adiong’s four aides and wounded the governor and two others.

On February 22, police said that Mayor Ohto Caumbo Montawal of Datu Montawal town in Maguindanao was hurt in an ambush try along Roxas Boulevard in Pasay City.

Fajardo said the PNP has “not established or [seen] any links with respect to these three cases” as of now.

KGA