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from the Manila Times
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2003/feb/02/top_stories/20030202top1.html
http://www.manilatimes.net/national/2003/feb/02/top_stories/20030202top1.html
Sunday, February 2, 2003
Ebdane: No gun ban for politicians
By Harley Palangchao, Correspondent ; Jena Balaoro, Joshua Dancel and Jefferson Antiporda, Reporters
Philippine National Police Chief Hermogenes Ebdane has requested President Macapagal-Arroyo to exempt politicians from the ban on carrying guns outside their homes.
The President last Thursday ordered Ebdane to ban civilians and off-duty police and military personnel from carrying their licensed firearms outside their homes.
Ebdane revealed his request to reporters in Baguio City yesterday after his visit to the Philippine Military Academy.
The President also indefinitely suspended the issuance of new gun licenses and permits to carry firearms.
Ebdane said the exemptions he seeks would cover only politicians and Cabinet members “with legitimate death threats.â€
He said the PNP general head_quarters would verify if the threats are legitimate.
Reactions to Ebdane’s request were varied.
Although he would be directly benefited by Ebdane’s requested exemptions, Trade and Industry Secretary Mar Roxas said without qualification “he supports the President’s recent instructions to cancel all permits to carry issued to civilian gun owners.â€
Roxas’ main concern is to raise commercial productivity as well as domestic and foreign investment as major planks of the President’s program of poverty alleviation. He said effective gun control will boost investor confidence in the country.
Donald Dee, president of the Employers’ Confederation of the Philippines or ECOP, told The Times it is unjust to exempt politicians or anybody who are supposed to have threats on their lives.
“This is like taxes,†Dee said. “First there were a few. Then, so many people were given exemp_tions. Once the government allows the politicians this privilege, others will also look for ways and means to get exempted. Soon, we will see that the gun ban has become unimplementable.â€
Former PNP Chief Gen. Roberto Lastimoso also lauded the President’s call for a total gun ban and opposed the granting of exemptions. “Exempting some_body not specified by law is not very good,†Lastimoso, now head of the Land Transportation Office, told The Times.
A retired general, Ninoy Aquino International Airport Executive Director Edgardo Manda, was not too dismissive of Ebdane’s request.
First, the PNP must first draw up very strict guidelines, Manda said. Then it should seek the help of the intelligence community to check out the claims of politicians asking to be exempted.
Two senators supported Ebda_ne’s request.
Sen. Robert Barbers, chair of the Senate Committee on Public Order and Illegal Drugs, told The Times: “You know politicians and govern_ment officials get death threats because of their work. Apart from our political opponents, we also earn the ire of those individuals who get knocked off along the way because of our work. So I support exemptions.â€
In fact, he said, the exemptions should not be limited to politicians and government officials “with threats on their lives,†but must include “people, like treasurers, accountants, and the like, who, in their line of duty, get death threats as well.â€
Pangilinan, although an anti-gun advocate, agreed that the President should provide exemptions.
“To those really requiring the use of guns for protection, the President must make an exemption. But make sure they are the ones who really need it,†Pangilinan said.
Sen. Aquilino Pimentel Jr. disagrees.
“Politicians should not be exempted from the gun ban. If they are threatened, police officers should protect them,†Pimentel said. “Otherwise, others would also seek exemption as their ima_gination dictates. And that would be the end of the gun ban.â€
He said police officers could be assigned to secure threatened politicians.
The most poignant comment on the subject came from former Mindoro Occidental congressman Ricardo V. Quintos.
Quintos’ two young sons were murdered in what he maintains was a politically motivated assassi_nation. Communist rebels had owned up to the killing.
One of the two Quintos sons was an MBA student, the other was a young businessman-farmer in Mindoro.
“There should be no exemptions. The culture of death and violence must stop. It’s the duty of the police to protect anyone who receives a death threat. What does the politician want to do when he goes around carrying a gun, shoot it out with his enemy? The gun is an instrument of death: you either use it to kill or it is used to kill you,†Quintos said.
Gunless Society President Nandy Pacheco is also against exemptions. “The government should give no exemptions if it wants the gun ban to be really effective,†Pacheco said.
Ebdane advised pro-gun groups protesting the gun ban to coordinate with the PNP and refrain from making any mass actions. He said that although the President has cancelled all permits to carry, there is such a thing as the permit to transport.
That permit, Ebdane said, “is for those who are involved in shooting competitions. They will be treated differently because they will have the permit to transport.â€
The implementing rules and regulations governing Executive Order No. 171 (Amnesty for Loose Firearm Holders) issued by the President is due for release tomorrow, once Ebdane approves it.
Sr. Supt. Geary Barias, chief of the Firearms and Explosives Division, said he has submitted the draft of the IRR to Ebdane.
Barias said among the concerns that were defined in the implemen_ting rules are the scope, duration, effectivity, and mechanics of the gun amnesty period.
EO 171 grants a general amnesty for the registration of loose firearms in the hands of civilians and other individuals.
By the PNP’s count, there are 328,000 illegally possessed firearms in the country.
Barias said there are two kinds of loose firearms: Those that have never been registered, and there are 147,000 such guns. Second, are firearms that have been registered before but whose registrations have not been renewed. There are 180,000 of these loose firearms.
Barias said the registration of the 147,000 firearms of which the PNP has no records is a “grave concern.â€
With the executive order, Barias said, “we can have the records of all exsting loose firearms in the country, making it easy for us to trace firearms used in criminal activities.â€