The Unlawyer

The Philippines’ election commission recently declined to extend the voter’s registration for the 2010 national polls beyond the October 31, 2009 deadline. On the other hand, tardy gun owners who may have failed to renew their licenses over the years – and those who want to, ahem, legalize the guns they now possess – have until November 30, 2009 to do so, courtesy of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo:

“In a news conference at the [Philippine National Police] headquarters in Camp Crame, [PNP chief Jesus] Verzosa urged gun owners to avail of the government’s last amnesty program for unlicensed and loose firearms.

“Verzosa said the 30-day amnesty program should have ended on October 31, but Arroyo granted the PNP’s appeal to extend the firearms registration until November 30.”

Philippine police officers first proposed the extension of the gun amnesty as a courtesy to those who may have wanted to enjoy its benefits but were thwarted by typhoons Ondoy and Pepeng. They took back an earlier vow that it would be The Last Gun Amnesty Ever.

This latest – and last – gun amnesty is part and parcel of Executive Order (EO) 817, or what the government calls its National Firearms Control Program (NFCP), its latest attempt to rein in the proliferation of unregistered firearms in the country:

“The government hopes to reduce by at least 3 percent every month the estimated 1.1 million loose firearms currently in the hands of threat groups, criminal elements and unauthorized individuals.”

At any rate, the fees that gun amnesty applicants need to pay in order to enjoy the benefits of this program are even much less than that charged by the previous amnesty campaign as noted by this blog:

“[PNP public information office chief Leonardo Espina] said gun owners could get their firearms registered simply by paying P1,000 for every unlicensed firearm and P650 for every firearm with expired license.. He said processing time would take less than 10 minutes for guns with clean records.”

You can download a PDF file of the gun amnesty registration procedures from the PNP web site or a web version of the same document from the PNP Pampanga web site.

So, what are the kinds of fireams that are included in this gun amnesty?

“The following firearms may be registered subject to the approval of [Chief PNP] as mandated by law:

1. Handguns (Pistols/Rev) cal .22 to .357 Magnum up to .45 caliber
2. Shotguns (all gauges)
3. Rifle caliber .22
4. all other low-powered firearms
5. High-Powered Rifles not exceeding caliber 7.62 (except crew-served weapon, anti- tank, etc.)”

It is interesting to note that the gun amnesty’s rules are more liberal in admitting the kinds of weapons that may be licensed. Ordinarily, a civilian applicant who wants to register, say a brand-new Remington 700 SPS in cal. 30-06, or a nice, surplus AK-47 will be turned away, as Philippine law only permits civilians to own bolt-action or semi-automatic rifles no larger than cal. 22.