Police Lt. Gen. Vicente Danao, Jr., officer-in-charge of the Philippine National Police (PNP), ordered all regional directors and concerned police commanders to regularly inspect their respective ammunition storage areas in order to prevent untoward incident similar to what happened at a military ammunition dump in Cagayan de Oro City.
Danao, through a memorandum issued by the Directorate for Operations, said police commanders should exercise due diligence in storing firearms ammunition due to the danger that comes with it if mishandled.
Police Maj. Gen. Valeriano De Leon, PNP director for Operations, said the same due diligence must also be observed in evidence storage areas where confiscated firearms and ammunition from criminal elements are stored.
“Our commanders should always make sure to check the weather condition and the temperature inside the storage areas. Moisture may develop inside and this can ignite the ammunition inside,” said De Leon.
"We have to be careful and responsible in handling this because we don’t want any similar incident that happened in Cagayan de Oro City to happen in the police camps or any police offices. So the best way to ensure that this would not happen is to take regular preventive measures,” he added.
While investigation is still being conducted on the incident in Cagayan de Oro City, similar cases also happened in the past.
De Leon said what happened in Cagayan de Oro City should serve as a lesson for every police commander to take extra safety measures in the storage of ammunition.
He also warned that those who would be found remiss in their responsibility of properly taking care of ammunition storage areas would be facing administrative cases.
“They would surely be facing administrative liability if they would not exercise due diligence because we have already reminded them through a memorandum issued from the National Headquarters,” said De Leon.