No sealing of gun muzzles for the 160,000-strong police force this year.

For the first time in a decade, the Philippine National Police (PNP) will break the tradition of the annual sealing of the firearms of cops nationwide to prevent indiscriminate firing during holiday revelries.

This is to show that the members of the police force are “disciplined and responsible enough” not to illegally use their guns, the head of the PNP’s Directorate for Operations Chief Supt. Camilo Cascolan said on Monday.

Cascolan said the directive came from PNP chief Director General Ronald “Bato” dela Rosa during the command conference with top-level police officials at Camp Crame last week.

“For how many years, the PNP has been sealing muzzles of guns. But how will the people see that the police are disciplined and responsible enough?” Cascolan told INQUIRER.net in a phone interview.

He said the reason behind the move was to show that the members of the PNP have “a high level of discipline” when it comes to the proper use of their service firearms.

If the non-sealing of cops’ gun muzzles is making the public anxious about possible cases of indiscriminate firing, Cascolan assured that the police leadership will see to it that all PNP members will abide by the rules in the use of firearms.

“By doing that, (the people) will be able to trust the PNP and our credibility will be raised,” he said.

In the Northern Mindanao police, its regional director Chief Supt. Noel Constantino ordered the halt of the yearly practice “to raise the bar of discipline and promote responsible use of government-issued firearms among the policemen.”

“The practice of muzzle taping only shows the distrust of the organization to its very own policemen such that we need to require unit commanders to physically put a tape around the muzzle of the firearms of policemen,” Constantino said.

“The PNP leadership today trusts and treats every policeman as a responsible law enforcement officer and gun-holder who will not fire his firearms indiscriminately and will only fire it when it is extremely necessary to do so in the line of duty,” he added.

Quoting Dela Rosa, Constatino reiterated that members of the police force who will violate the directive “will be severely dealt with to the fullest extent of the law.”/rga

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