Each cop will have a gun in 2 years, PNP promises

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All police officers will have their own service firearms in two years’ time, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said Tuesday as a local supplier of Glock pistols moved closer toward winning the contract to provide the PNP with about 60,000 of the handguns.

The Trust Trade and Glock Asia Pacific joint venture, which offered the second lowest bid in the P1.2 billion procurement, is poised to be awarded the contract after it passed the endurance and materials tests, according to the bids and awards committee (BAC).

If it wins the contract, Trust Trade will deliver 59,904 units of the 9mm Glock 17 Generation 4 pistol in five batches within 570 days, said Senior Supt. Edwin Roque, who heads the BAC secretariat.

The target is to provide each police officer with his or her own handgun. At present, less than 7 out of 10 police officers, or 67 percent of the 145,000-member PNP, have been issued short firearms by the PNP. The rest have none or buy their own.

“Our priority are [those] in the regions, especially those involved in operations or are at the front lines, like in municipal police stations and security battalions. Those in the national headquarters will be the last priority,” Roque said.

In a briefing at Camp Crame, the official said the BAC’s technical working group (TWG) tasked with evaluating the qualifications of the lowest bidders will soon be issuing a recommendation on whether to award the contract to Trust Trade.

“From all indications, it appears that is the direction we are heading,” Roque said.

Earlier, the PNP announced that two samples provided by Trust Trade successfully completed the 20,000-round endurance and stress test.

The company that offered the lowest bid, a joint venture of R. Espineli and the Israel Weapons Industry, was disqualified for failing to comply with documentary requirements. It had submitted the lowest bid of P974 million, which would have saved the government more than P220 million.

Trust Trade came a close second with a bid of P998 million, while a joint venture between Kolonwel Trading and Countermeasure, representing the maker of CZ pistols, was third with P1.06 billion. Arms Corp. of the Philippines was fourth with a bid of P1.197 billion.

On Sunday, the BAC technical working group carried out the final stage of the 20,000-round endurance test on the Glock samples submitted by Trust Trade Philippines for testing.

The endurance test was among nine test parameters that the samples had to go through, along with technical inspection, dimensional test, accuracy test, maintainability, parts interchangeability, sand and mud test, and a water and magazine drop test.