Cebu City brgy tanods to carry guns

Cebu City South District Representative Tomas R. Osmeña said he will ask the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to make a pilot project that barangay tanods in Cebu City will be allowed to carry guns for them to be active in helping the police in the maintenance of peace and order.

Osmeña said he will ask DILG Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas to make Cebu City as pilot area of this project and once it will be proven to be effective he will recommend that it will be implemented in other local government units.

He said using the tanods as real peace officers by arming them is the answer of the long time problem of lack of policemen because the government cannot hire more policemen because of financial constraints.

The monthly basic salary of a low ranking police officer is about P18,000 while tanod only accept honorarium.

Some of the barangays in Cebu City is only giving monthly honorarium to its tanods ranging from P500 to P3,000 that prompted the city to grant P4,000 additional monthly cash assistance to each of them.

Osmeña said all tanods should be required to undergo training seminar about law enforcement, specifically the issue about the proper handling of firearms to make them more effective of their jobs.

“I don’t understand why the government allows the security guards to carry guns while the tanods are not,” he said. Osmeña believed that the lack of policemen can be solved by making the tanods like real peace officers in their respective places.

But while Osmeña is recommending that tanods will be allowed to carry guns, he said they will be allowed only within the territorial limits of their barangays.

He remembered that during the stint of his father Sergio “Serging” Osmeña as mayor, the city had 1,000 policemen, but now the city only has a little over 9,000 police force.

“Nindot kaayo na ang plano ni Tommy nga matugotan kaming tanod nga maisyuhan og armas kay risgo kaayo namo nga moresponde og armed person nga kami walay pusil,” a tanod of Barangay Sto. Niño said.