Election gun ban ends, over 3,600 violators arrested, charged
The Philippine National Police (PNP) has arrested a total of 3,651 people in the implementation of the election gun ban which started on January 9 and ended on Wednesday, June 8.
Based on the PNP data, most of those arrested were civilians with a total of 3,513 followed by security guards with 61. The same data revealed that there were a total of 28 PNP personnel arrested and members of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) collared.
All of them were charged in connection with the Commission on Election Resolution pertaining to the resolution implementing the gun ban. Some were charged with illegal [possession of firearms as the guns seized were found to be not licensed.
Police Brig. Gen. Roderick Augustus Alba, chief of the PNP-Public Information Office, said a total of 2,812 firearms were confiscated, a total of 2,392 of them were handguns while the rest were either light weapons or gun replicas.
A total of 1,306 bladed weapons and 17,401 bullets were also confiscated.
Alba said Metro Manila had the most number of arrested gun ban violators with 1,335; followed by Region 4A with 398; Central Visayas with 372; Central Luzon with 320; and, Western Visayas with 219.