More than half the police officers in the Philippines, which is battling to control serious crime, do not have handguns, a senior official said Thursday.

The Philippines National Police (PNP) did not have enough money to properly arm its 125,000 officers, spokesman Chief Superintendent Nicanor Bartolome told local radio.

"There is a shortage of 51,242 firearms, if we base that on the strength of 125,000 (officers), that's more than 50 percent" of police without standard-issue handguns, he said

Aside from the lack of 90mm handguns, there was also a shortfall of 66,886 shotguns and rifles, he said.

He also said the PNP has only 689 police stations around the archipelago, 1,056 fewer than needed.

The force did not have enough money to buy handguns for every officer, he said, adding that from 2003-2008 the force bought fewer than 30,000 handguns.

"In 2008, we only managed to buy 1,000 firearms -- that was all we could afford," he said.

Bartolome did not say if the firepower shortage was affecting the force's ability to fight crime, and said, without further details, that efforts were being made to ensure each officer had a handgun.

Crime remains a pressing problem in the Philippines, where street shootings by criminal gangs are common in both urban and rural areas.

On Wednesday, a junior cabinet minister was ambushed and shot on a busy Manila street while en route to a meeting with President Gloria Arroyo.