Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Eduardo Año said the government has exempted the military and the police personnel from the gun ban implementation.
Año explained that the ‘gun ban exemption’ is applied to the members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) and Philippine National Police (PNP) ‘in bulk’ as granted by the Commission on Election (Comelec).
“So isolated incident na lang naman po yung mga nahuhuli (uniformed personnel) na meron pong daladalang armas na walang gun ban exemption (Those were isolated incidents where armed uniformed personnel are caught without gun ban exemption),’’ Año told the President during in a news briefing aired on May 3.
However, Año insisted that uniformed soldiers in their ‘area of operation or area of responsibility’ are not apprehended since they have the appropriate ‘mission order’ from their unit commanders.
In the same briefing, President Duterte maintained that the police and military force should be automatically exempted from the gun ban of the Commission on Elections (Comelec).
He noted that members of the police and the military are having difficulties in securing clearances as they would have no time to process this.
“Getting individual clearances from the Comelec is really a bad idea, kasi po (because) some policemen are assigned in an area different from where he is attuned to there, or he lives outside the area of his jurisdiction or assignment papauwi ng bahay, ito minsan nahuhuli, (going home, they are sometimes apprehended),’’ Duterte said.
Duterte said the uniformed personnel must act in accordance to their oath of office with or without an exemption from the gun ban, and do what is ‘right’ and fulfill their duty. (Chito A. Chavez)