THE Philippine National Police (PNP) urged the National Bureau of Investigation on Friday to file criminal charges against inmates of the National Bilibid Prison (NBP), who yielded unlicensed firearms during a raid that was led by no less than Justice Secretary Leila de Lima.
Chief Supt. Virgilio Moro Lazo, director of the PNP Firearms and Explosives Office (FEO), said the NBI should file charges of illegal possession of firearms against Peter Co and other inmates, whose quarters at the correctional facility were found to have high-powered firearms seized during the raid on December 15.
Co, one of the high-profile prisoners at the NBP, yielded a cache of firearms that included several pistols and an M-16 assault rifle, which, according to records from the FEO, were registered to several politicians and a government employee.
“The NBI should file charges against the people who were found in possession of the firearms,” Lazo said. He said they were hoping that the NBI could furnish them with copies of the charges that were filed against the inmates in order for them to have a basis, too, in asking the original owners of the firearms to explain. “They must explain how come those guns ended in the possession of the other people, other than them as the registered owners,” Lazo said.
He said the FEO is also conducting its own investigation as to how the firearms ended with prisoners at the correctional facility, much more that these prisoners are not ordinary inmates, but are drug leaders.
Lazo said that, since the firearms are already in the possession of people other than their licensed owners, they are already considered loose firearms. “If, for example, gun holders did not report loss of firearm to PNP, they may be held liable,” he also said.
Meanwhile, the PNP has issued a stern warning against indiscriminate and illegal discharge of firearms by government and civilian gunholders as part of its support to a “gun-free” celebration of Christmas and New Year.
PNP Officer in Charge Deputy Director General Leonardo Espina issued a memorandum to all police commanders to intensify their campaign against illegal discharge of firearms and indiscriminate firing.