THE Philippine National Police has revoked the permits of 377 gun holders found to have submitted questionable or fake neuro-psychiatric tests.

It is also an offense which means they will be perpetually disqualified from applying for firearm licenses, PNP Civil Security Group director Brigadier General Benjamin H. Silo Jr. told the Journal Group on Tuesday.

In a report to PNP chief General Benjamin C. Acorda Jr., the PNP-CSG director said that out of the 377, a total of 64 individual gun-holders were found to have no Neuro-Psychiatric Test while the rest failed the test but managed to pass it days later.

The official said their investigation showed that all 377 applied for the new PNP Firearms Registration System but after failing their NP tests reverted to the old PNP registration system which is prone to corruption.

“Nung nakakita sila ng connection, na nagsabing puwedeng mabaliktad ang resulta ng PNP and they can apply for firearm licenses using the old system, they went for it.

Sad to say, some unscrupulous PNP personnel are involved in this anomaly as they were found to have asked P30,000 to as much as P35,000 from each applicant,” Brig. Gen. Silo said.

The PNP Firearms and Explosives Office headed by Brig. Gen. Paul Kenneth T. Lucas has issued a resolution revoking the LTOPF, Firearm Registration and PTCFORs of the 377 gun-holders.

“What is clear here is that we have discovered that 64 of the individual gun-holders did not take the NP Test but each was able to produce an NP Test result while the rest failed the NP Test but managed to get a passing NP test days later when they should take the test six months after only,” the official said.

“This is worrisome because these persons are really endangering the safety of the public because they did not take or failed the required Neuro-Psychiatric Test but got one simply because they coughed out money to some unscrupulous police personnel,” Brig. Gen. Silo said.

To avoid a repetition of the irregularity, the PNP-CSG director said he has directed all CSG-FEO field commanders to ensure that their personnel will be using their new Firearm Information Management System which has already been fully enhanced following a study made by their Technical Working Group and their IT specialists.

“Our major solution here is to use the new FIMS and do away with the old system which allows the creation of accounts by officials either from the Health Service and the Forensic Group.

The old system actually enables some enterprising personnel to create fictitious accounts that would make it hard for us to prosecute the persons involved,” Brig. Gen. Silo explained.

“Serious ako dito. Kahit sino ang tamaan, I don’t care. Ang Bible namin sa CSG, the FEO and sa SOSIA is the Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corruption Act, RA 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees and RA 11032 or the Anti-Red Tape Law and ease of doing business in the country,” the PNP-CSG director said.

RA 3019 calls on all public officials and employees to uphold the time-honored principle of public office being a public trust.

Journal Group sources said that Silo’s effort to institute major reforms at the PNP-CSG, which supervises the operations of the PNP-FEO and the PNP Supervisory Office for Security and Investigation Agencies, have earned him a number of enemies including big businessmen who have been affected by his strict policies.

There were reports that some private personalities affected by the reforms being instituted by the PNP-CSG director have even offered P50 million just to have him relieved from his post.