Gunless Society: Limit gun ownership to police, soldiers

The Gunless Society of Philippines on Monday urged the government to limit gun ownership yo guns to military and police personnel.

The group opposed President Rodrigo Duterte's suggestion to give guns to anti-crime volunteers in a bid to maintain peace and order in the country. 

"Ang aming mungkahi diyan, higpitan ang pagmamay-ari ng baril kung pwede malimitahan sa tactical units sa military and other law enforcement agencies," Norman Cabrera, secretary general of the Gunless Society of the Philippines, told Balitanghali.

[Our appeal is to form strict regulations for gun ownership if we can, limit guns for tactical units of military and other law enforcement agencies.]," 

Without strict policies on gun ownership, Cabrera said there would be more incidents of people using unlicensed guns in the country.

"Ang pamahalaan natin ngayon open system, as if guns are an ordinary commodity dahil sa ganyang polisiya lumalabas ang napakarami, mas marami pa sa mga lisensyadong baril na 'di nacocontrol at mga illegal firearms so to speak," he said.

[What we have is an open system as if guns are an ordinary commodity. With this policy, it shows that there are more illegal firearms and unlicensed guns which cannot be controlled.]

Cabrera further opposed calls for arming civilians for crime-fighting as the so-called "gun culture" in the Philippines is still a big problem.

"Sa aking pananaw hindi talaga ito mithiin ng mga ng nakararaming Pilipino, 'di to gawa nila kundi, gawa ng politiko," he added.

[For me, Filipinos do not want this, this is only the desire of politicians.]

Earlier, presidential spokesman Harry Roque clarified that Duterte's call to give firearms to civilians to aid police in deterring crime is not yet a policy.

"He (President) is open to the idea, but there is no final decision yet. It is speculative to discuss it since there is no policy on that yet," Roque said during a Palace briefing. -Consuelo Marquez/NB, GMA News