Burgos Mayor seeks guidelines for issued shotguns
By: DANLOR CHAMP D. HIDALGO
Correspondent
BINALONAN -- A town mayor has sought the issuance of general guidelines governing the use of shotguns issued to each of the 1,300 barangay captains of Pangasinan by the provincial government.
Mayor Domingo Doctor of Burgos town, a lawyer and former military officer, made the request to Police Deputy Director General Jesus Versoza who was in Pangasinan on Wednesday.
Versoza, groomed as the next PNP chief upon the retirement of PNP Chief Director General Avelino Razon and a native of Dasol town, was the guest of honor and speaker during the regular meeting of the Pangasinan Mayor's League (PML).
Doctor deplored the absence of guidelines when the shotguns were issued to barangay captains by Governor Amado Espino Jr., expressing concern that the same is prone to abuse.
Doctor was among only two mayors of Pangasinan who publicly opposed the distribution of shotguns by the provincial government. The other is Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza.
Braganza called on his barangay captains not to receive the shotguns as there is no need for it because Alaminos is a peaceful city, he said.
The mayor's view was shared by the Alaminos City Council headed by Vice Mayor Teofilo Humilde Jr., which passed a resolution urging Espino to just donate the shotguns to the police whose men still lack firearms to fight criminals.
The resolution was sponsored jointly by Alaminos City Councilors Carolyn Sison and Joselito Fontelera.
Another Mayor Herminio Romero of Mangaldan, did not exactly say he was against the distribution of shotguns to barangay captains.
He said, however, it would have been better if there was consultation with mayors before the forearms were distributed.
The shotguns were released directly to individual baarangay captains grouped into districts clearly bypassing the mayors.