Published June 30, 2021, 10:37 AM
The Philippine National Police (PNP) should focus on showing it can protect them before entertaining thoughts of arming civilian “volunteers” to help stop criminality, Senator Panfilo M. Lacson said on Wednesday, June 30.
Lacson, chairman of the Senate national defense and security committee, also reiterated the PNP must be stricter especially in issuing Permits to Carry Firearms Outside Residences (PTCFORs) to civilians including senators, congressmen and other ranking government officials.
“The PNP should make it a point first to show that it is efficient, professional, and competent to protect civilians on the streets from malefactors – including those with unlicensed guns and irresponsible gun holders that make them a threat – before it issues PTCFORs to deputize civilian ‘volunteers’ as force multipliers,” Lacson, who headed the PNP from 1999 to 2001, said in an interview on TeleRadyo.