LINGAYEN–Taking a cue from Police Provincial Director Percival Barba, at least 532 defiant barangay kapitans are holding on to their shotguns issued by the provincial government two years ago.

Barba recently announced that the police have suspended the collection of shotguns from the individual houses of the village chiefs in line with the gun ban in place for the May 2010 election.

Barba said the decision to suspend the shotgun collection is in view of the letter of the Liga ng mga Barangay to the Commission on Elections (Comelec) asking for an exception from the ban with the pledge that these would not be brought out of the kapitan’s respective houses.

The Comelec has yet to issue a decision on this request.

Barba has said that he favors that the remaining shotguns that have not been turned over be kept by the kapitans.

He stressed that the recall was only provided for in the Memorandum of Agreement signed by him, Governor Amado Espino Jr. and the Liga ng mga Barangay and that the MOA can be changed to suit this purpose.

Under the gun ban, no one is allowed to carry firearms except police and military personnel who are on duty and in proper uniform. The regional police chief pointed out that the barangay kapitans are not part of the exemption.

In a talk to the media, Barba said he preferred that the shotguns remain in the hands of the barangay captains instead of having these deposited with the policed stations since most police stations have no armory.

At the same time, Barba cited statistics that showed a downtrend in province’s crime index since the issuance of shotguns to barangay captains.

KAMBINGAN DIPLOMACY

Meanwhile, Barba announced that contending political candidates in Binalonan signed their own covenant for a peaceful election, making it the second town to join the “Kambingan Diplomacy”.

The first one was held in Tayug . –LM

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