PNP chief warns men vs firing guns this Christmas season

Philippine National Police personnel received an early warning from their chief Friday against firing their guns indiscriminately during the holidays. Radio dzBB's Sam Nielsen reported that PNP chief Director General Raul Bacalzo vowed to crack down on personnel who will fire their weapons to mark Christmas and New Year. Many of the injuries related to the holiday revelry had been traced to policemen firing their weapons during the holidays. In the 2009 revelry, the Health Department said 14 people were hit by stray bullets, up from nine in 2008. The DOH statistics, however, did not say if the bullets were from the firearms of policemen or soldiers or ordinary citizens. As in previous years, police commanders are expected to apply tape on the muzzles of their men's firearms to make sure they do not fire their weapons indiscriminately. The firearms are to be checked after Christmas and New Year to see who among the police personnel fired their weapons to celebrate the occasion. But this early, a Hong Kong-based rights group branded as "foolish" and "unintelligible" the PNP's upcoming yearly plastering of firearms to prevent indiscriminate firing during the holidays. The Asian Human Rights Commission said the ritual shows not only how the police fail to control firearms, but also how it violates laws controlling firearms. "In the Philippines, the police and soldiers have the habit of firing their firearms in open air during Christmas and New Year's eve. The police establishment performs this ritual, giving a false sense that they were in control of their policemen. How can one expect they can implement laws control when they are the ones violating them?" it said in a statement posted on its website. "The most foolish example as to how the police establishment itself, did not only fail, but are themselves violating laws in exercising control of firearms, is the PNP's yearly unintelligible rituals of plastering with adhesive tape the nozzles of service firearms issued to the PNP personnel a few days before Christmas and New Year." it added. — RSJ, GMANews.TV