The Philippine National Police (PNP) made a request to President Arroyo for a month-long extension of the gun amnesty giving gun owners more time to register their undocumented guns and renew expired licenses.

The PNP has requested the President, through Interior and Local Government Secretary Ronnie Puno, for an extension of the General Firearms Amnesty from Nov. 1 to 30, 2009.

Executive Order No. 817 only provided for a gun amnesty from Oct. 1 to Oct. 31.

In his letter to President Arroyo, Puno said an extension of the amnesty period is “now requested by the public to give individual firearm holders and juridical entities more time and opportunity to renew expired firearm licenses or register their loose firearms in consideration of the effect of recent calamities that has not only taken its toll but has taken the time from potential registrants to avail of the amnesty.”

The PNP has significantly completed its target of 3 percent monthly reduction of the estimated 1.1 million loose firearms in the country.

National Secretariat of the National Firearms Control Program figures showed that in September, 107,841 expired gun licenses were renewed by their owners while 8,200 loose firearms were registered. Another 3,080 loose firearms were confiscated from threat groups and criminal elements.

PNP chief director general Jesus Verzosa said gun owners from areas affected by two recent storms in Luzon have requested for an extension of the amnesty period to afford them more time to renew expired licenses.

Verzosa noted that in Marikina, which is among the hardest hit areas by tropical storm “Ondoy,” a satellite office of the Firearms and Explosives Office is being put up as an expanded feature of the National Firearms Control Program.

The P3.9-million pilot project is funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency.