ILOILO City – The Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) has ordered all personnel across Western Visayas to adopt an “iron hand approach” toward individuals who have failed to renew their firearm licenses.
In a recent assembly with city and provincial directors and all police chiefs, Police Brigadier General Jack Wanky, regional police director, mandated the strict collection of loose firearms, particularly those with expired licenses.
“If they continue to ignore our call to renew their expired licenses or to surrender their guns, we will have no choice but to conduct police operations. We have been calling on them for a long time, yet they have failed,” said Wanky.
Previously, PRO-6 employed a “soft hand approach” through “Oplan Tokhang Kontra Guinadili-an nga Armas”, a campaign involving police door-to-door visits to residences of gun owners with expired licenses and suspected unauthorized firearm holders.
Despite these efforts, some gun holders have not complied, leading PRO-6 to issue search warrants against them.
In April of this year alone, PRO-6 successfully executed 17 search warrants, resulting in the arrest of 15 individuals and the confiscation of 22 firearms and one explosive.
The Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office (NOPPO) implemented seven of these warrants, followed by Capiz PPO with four, Iloilo PPO with two, and the Antique PPO, Iloilo City Police Office, Guimaras PPO, and Regional Mobile Force Battalion 6 executing one each.
Records from the Regional Civil Security Unit 6 show that as of March 10, there were 30,838 firearms with unrenewed licenses, categorized as loose firearms, in Western Visayas.
Iloilo province recorded the highest number with 6,427 unrenewed firearms, followed by Negros Occidental with 6,257, Bacolod City with 5,171, Iloilo City with 5,063, Capiz with 3,688, Aklan with 1,873, Antique with 1,811, and Guimaras with 548.
Wanky praised the units and personnel involved for their performance in the campaign.
“These accomplishments reflect your dedication to your work. Continue to monitor individuals with unlicensed firearms as they will be the next subjects of our search warrant applications,” said Wanky./PN
