Philippines Leader Wants Gun Crackdown

by Ma Nguyen Tong

30-1-2003

Philippines President Gloria Arroyo called for a crackdown on civilians carrying guns in public places. In a speech at police headquarters in Quezon City, she ordered police to suspend the issuance of permits to carry firearms in public places. It was unclear how effective the order would be in a country which is wracked by gun violence, corruption and overly pompous and self-important politicians and political and economic elite who carried guns to use to force their way on almost everything going down. There are more than 800,000 licensed gun owners in the Philippines, but millions more firearms are owned illegally.

Exemptions

Although carrying guns in public is already illegal, there are a multitude of exemptions, mainly aimed at allowing the country's economic and political elite to carry guns and more or less get away scot-free when they use them in questionable activities. Movie stars, judges, politicians and those living under death threats, of which there are very many  given the penchant for using violence as a means to force issues, are all currently exempt. Mrs Arroyo vowed to close those loopholes.

"Only the uniformed men in the military and authorised law enforcement officers can carry firearms in public," said the president. And when asked about corrupt policemen linked to crime gangs, which amount to nearly half the police force, she promised to "jail the rascals in uniform".

Sitting ducks

Anti-crime activists gave a mixed reaction to the move.

"This is a double-edged move," Dante Jimenez, head of the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption watchdog group said.

"This will help minimise crime but what about people like us... we have many enemies and we have received death threats. We would be sitting ducks."

Meanwhile correspondents say that President Arroyo has failed to address the key issues of poverty and crime during her administration. This latest move suggested she was seeking to rectify this before her presidential term ends in 2004. Gun ownership in the Philippines was brought into focus on January 10 when a law school graduate, Jose Ramon Llamas, was shot after a minor confrontation with another motorist. But being shot after minor confrontations with other motorists is not uncommon in the Philippines. In Manila alone, at least two epople every month die this way. Late in 2002 a judge killed a motorist the same way after the shot man did not offer an "appropriate elevl of repsect" after the judge drove his SUV ionto the other man's.

Interior Secretary Jose Lina said earlier in January that unlicensed weapons were involved in 85% of gun-related crimes in the Philippines.