Security guards warned vs carrying guns off-duty amid 2025 poll ban

Election gun ban. INQUIRER FILES

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine National Police (PNP) cautioned security guards against carrying their firearms off-duty, stressing vigilance amid the gun ban for the 2025 elections.

The warning came as 10 security guards were apprehended for violating the ban since it began with the start of the election period on Jan. 12.

READ: Election gun ban violators reach 250; 255 firearms seized – PNP

“We’ve already reminded our security guards. But of course, they have supervision who’d be the ones to monitor their personnel,” PNP Public Information Office head Col. Randulf Tuaño said in a press briefing at Camp Crame on Tuesday.

READ: Election gun ban: 225 violators nabbed, 228 guns seized in 1st week

“If you’d notice, we’ve already brought cases against several security guards because what they normally say is that they didn’t notice that they were bringing home their issued firearms,” Tuaño added.

Commission on Elections (Comelec) Resolution No. 11067 provided that only those carrying a certificate of authority were permitted to carry guns outside their residence or places of business during the ban, as granted by its Committee on the Ban on Firearms and Security Concerns.

When asked about what penalties could be imposed on security guards who violate the ban, Tuaño answered, “Their license renewal and the security protection they provide for the agency they work at could be jeopardized.”

“It has been customary for these security guards before, back when there were still no Comelec gun ban checkpoints, was that they brought home their firearms,” he explained.

The latest data from the PNP showed that the number of gun ban violators so far reached 250 while 255 firearms were confiscated by police, as of last Monday.

The election period, along with the gun ban, is set to officially end on June 11.