THE PHILIPPINES does not have the “active shooter problem” that happens often in schools in the United States where students and parents are now rising up in protest against the lack of stricter gun control laws and enforcement. Our country does have, however, a gun control problem. Everywhere.
Just this weekend, the governor of Negros Oriental and several other people were sprayed with bullets by heavily-armed assassins. A week ago two men were shot to death in Pavia, Iloilo. Last month a former seafarer was shot to death by tricycle-riding gunmen in Barangay Botongon, Estancia, Iloilo. Just this January a village councilman was shot to death in Barangay Purog, Dueñas, Iloilo. And a few months back three young entrepreneurs were shot to death in Estancia, Iloilo.
How were the shooters able to acquire their guns? Were they even licensed?
Especially in the provinces, thousands of loose firearms are in the hands of private armies, bandits and rebels.
Local elections in many hotspots tend to be bloody, deadly, and often involving unlicensed firearms. Remember the election eve ambush in Balasan, Iloilo in 2016 that killed two supporters of a mayoral candidate? The election gun ban and checkpoints siphon away some of the loose firearms, but little is known about whether those caught ever get prosecuted and convicted.
Remember Dr. Dreyfuss Perlas of the Doctors to the Barrios program? This young Aklanon physician – the municipal health officer of Sapad, Lanao del Norte – died on March 1, 2017. He was shot dead after he had just come from a medical mission in Kapatagan, Lanao del Norte.
On the streets and in homes in Metro Manila and other densely-populated areas, we have near-daily occurrence of fatal shooting incidents involving neighbors and suspected drug dealers and runners.
Riding-in-tandem gun-toting assassins appear to be everywhere. We can cite more examples. What is clear, though, is that we lack stricter gun control laws and enforcement. Guns seem to be proliferating like shabu, accessible to anyone. To say that the situation is alarming is an understatement.
