Purisima defends gun license delivery deal

PNP Director General Alan Purisima: In defense of Werfast. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Philippine National Police on Thursday defended the multimillion-peso agreement it entered into with a start-up courier service to deliver firearm licenses nationwide.

PNP Director General Alan Purisima said Werfast Documentation Agency Inc. offered its services to the PNP Firearms and Explosives Office (FEO) to deliver gun permits in 2011.

Purisima said the innovation was part of the FEO’s effort to implement stricter gun control measures after discovering there were up to 600,000 loose firearms in the country.

“Those who refuse to comply with the PNP’s policy to write down their real address in their application for licenses are the ones complaining about the stricter process,” Purisima said in a news briefing at Camp Crame.

Told that Werfast was awarded the lucrative contract even before it was incorporated in the Securities and Exchange Commission, Purisima said he was not familiar with the agreement since he was appointed PNP chief only in December 2012.

Purisima admitted the project did not undergo a public bidding as the PNP was not paying the delivery fee charged by Werfast.

He said he did not see anything wrong with Werfast outsourcing the delivery of gun licenses to the LBC forwarding company.

“It’s a business. If you’re doing business, you have to earn. Am I right? That’s their business strategy,” he said.

An Inquirer source said Werfast was merely the “middleman” and was charging P190 as service fee from gun owners even though LBC only charges P90 for deliveries within Metro Manila.

A police official, who asked not to be identified, said Werfast was owned by Ireno Bacolod, a retired police director who used to head the PNP Civil Security Group (CSG), the unit that has administrative supervision over the FEO.

The source said Bacolod was Purisima’s former boss in the CSG.—Marlon Ramos

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