The Philippine National Police is pushing to make the application and renewal processing of privately owned firearms more accessible nationwide. 

In a media interview on Thursday, PNP chief, PGen. Rommel Francisco Marbil, said the police organization is already shifting to online processing to help those incapable of visiting their headquarters.

“It’s so hard to go to Camp Crame because we lack parking spaces for those renewing their licenses, so now what we are doing is that, we are already removing the long processing which includes the need to go to Camp Crame,” Marbil told reporters. 

Marbil said the PNP already suggested that neuropsychiatric examination and drug tests for firearm license processing should now be done in their accredited centers. 

“You don’t have to go to Camp Crame. All you have to do is to avail of our computerized processing and then you’ll get your ID right away,” he added. 

Currently, the neuro-psychiatric test is being conducted by the PNP health service personnel, PNP-accredited testing centers, and evaluators such as psychiatrists, psychologists, and screeners. 

The PNP crime laboratory handles the drug testing of applicants followed by undergoing a gun safety seminar at the police headquarters. 

“So before acquiring permits, you will have to process them at Camp Crame. What’s happening is that—the provision of permit to carry [firearms] appears to be only accessible for those residing in Metro Manila,” he said. 

He lamented that those individuals from other parts of the country who are in need to apply for a permit to carry firearms will have to fly to Metro Manila and process their application.

“Those people from Mindanao and Visayas needed to go to Camp Crame. The reason why we are allowing people to get a permit to carry firearms is because there are threats so we want accessibility for them,” he noted. 

Marbil said the PNP will set up application and renewal offices in Visayas and Mindanao, “just to make sure that those in need of permits would be easy for them to process.”

“Initially, we are looking into putting up one in Visayas and one in Mindanao. We will just start there because number one—we have to consider our resources for facilities and the people that we need to man these offices,” he added. 

Marbil, however, clarified that the memorandum circular for applying permit to carry a firearm must be strictly followed. 

The PNP would just want the application and renewal to be accessible to those “who really needed permits,” he stressed.