PNP extends gun license renewal

FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – All registered firearm licenses expiring this year will remain valid until December 2015, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said on Wednesday.

What paved the way for the extension is the system upgrade the PNP Firearms and Explosives Office (FEO) will undergo to improve the licensing of firearms and ammunition as part of the newly enacted Republic Act 10591 or the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Law of 2013.

‎”The PNP is extending the validity of firearms licenses due to expire this January up to December 2014 to allow the PNP FEO to refocus more on the information technology enhancements of the firearms registration system,” Chief Superintendent Virgilio Lazo, PNP FEO chief, said in a press briefing.

Of the 1.7 million registered firearms, both expired and renewed,  Lazo said 621,000 licenses are supposed to expire in 2014.

In April, the Supreme Court issued a Temporary Restraining Order (TRO) on RA 10591, ordering the PNP to cascade to its regional offices the firearms licenses application and renewals, which was formerly done solely in Camp Crame.

Lazo pointed out that it could have been better if the registration was made only in Crame to ensure “100-percent integrity” of the system.

“We had to make adjustments. But since the new system we are using couldn’t be immediately replicated to the regional offices, then it will take some time,” Lazo said.

Under the TRO, neuropsychiatric exam, drug test, fingerprinting and ballistics exam should be available in the offices of PNP nationwide.

These tests are required in the application of Permit to Transport (PTP) and License to Own and Possess Firearms (LTOPF) of gun owners.

Despite the prolonged period of application, Lazo said gun owners, whose licenses will expire in December 2014, should have their LTOPF secured by December 2015.

“The law prescribes that six months before, the LTOPF must be processed first (before a license can be renewed‎),” he said.

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