Loose firearms today were the guns seized yesterday

LETTERS  FROM THE AGNO
by March Fianza

Total gun ban and total log ban – two measures that have glaring similarities. Both cannot be consistently and honestly implemented. In the first measure, an initial step is for government to stop issuing licenses so that gun stores will practically become paralyzed, close shop and the guns for sale will have to be inventoried, properly receipted and temporarily kept in government-accredited depositories for safekeeping. The expected result is for both licensed and unlicensed firearms to stay where they are. I was in high school in 1972 when then President Marcos as Commander-in-Chief of the AFP and the Philippine Constabulary, declared Martial Law. I recall that a few days after the declaration, Marcos issued a stern warning for known owners of unlicensed and licensed guns to turn-over their pieces to the nearest police detachment for safekeeping, or else face the consequences of an unceremonial house to house search.

For fear of being raided and getting killed in the process, many law-abiding gun owners surrendered their guns to Camp Holmes (now Camp Dangwa). Martial Law was lifted in 1981, but they were not able to retrieve their guns because these were no longer there. Who else would get the firearms other than the men in the agency that was tasked to keep them? Your guess is as right as mine – the guns that were confiscated during Martial Law for “safekeeping” are today’s loose firearms.

Now that could be one reason why gun buff PNoy is not so keen on having a gun ban law in the country. President Noy knows that the confiscated guns during Martial Law were not returned to their owners. It appears that the “culture” of losing confiscated items has become part of a bad system in police agencies. Nobody can disagree with the fact that we have been reading yesterday’s news about confiscated drugs and carnap vehicles that get lost while in the hands of the police. Eventually and literally, these items return to the streets where they were confiscated. The drugs are resold while the cars are bought by innocent buyers. In the Atimonan, Quezon “massacre” last week, it turned out that the cars that were riddled with bullets were alleged to be carnap vehicles. It is the same thing with guns. These are confiscated, get lost during safekeeping, and resold to whoever needs them. Most probably, these will end up in the armory of a politician warlord. The guns may be bought by an operator of jueteng and illegal gambling dens, or end up in the hands of police colonels who are in cahoots with carnappers and gun-for-hire characters.

When the Magdalo group of government soldiers staged a coup in 2005, they complained about corrupt AFP generals who have been selling government guns and ammo to their kalaban in war-torn Mindanao. As proof to what the Magdalo soldiers have been complaining about, it was discovered in the investigations following the Maguindanao massacre that the firearms that were hurriedly buried in the estate of the Ampatuans bore serial numbers belonging to guns issued for the AFP.

Under a total gun ban atmosphere, only law enforcement personnel will be allowed to carry government issued licensed firearms. Although, I know of some PNP and AFP men who have in their possession unlicensed guns, despite being issued their official firearms. Hence, the fear that in a total gun ban, the number of unlicensed guns will increase. Last week, Police Director General Alan Purisima estimated that around 530,000 loose firearms have yet to be accounted for before the implementation of the election gun ban which starts tomorrow. The number only includes guns that have licenses but were not renewed, and did not include smuggled and unregistered firearms. Meanwhile, the Gunless Society, an association of personalities who hate guns, is not entirely opposed to the total gun ban rule but is against the issuance of “permit to carry” documents. Its members say, guns should be left inside the residence, in offices and business establishments.

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Relatively, the supposed implementation of a total gun ban proposal was what happened to PNoy’s EO 23 or the Total Log Ban of January 2011. The law was not able to stop illegal logging. Instead, the forests were attacked by poachers from all sides because the logging companies that held timber license agreements issued by the DENR, left their areas bringing with them their security forces that had been helpful in protecting the forests covered by the TLAs.

When Typhoon Sendong hit Mindanao in the last quarter of 2011, the floods were blamed on logging that did not stop a minute despite the total log ban that was ordered in January of that year. Pictures of thousands of logs that flowed down with mud from the mountains of Cagayan de Oro are still fresh in the memory of relatives of hundreds of victims that were killed by the floods wrought by logging activities concealed by the operators and the DENR. A year later, a similar flooding incident wrought by abnormal weather at Compostela Valley killed hundreds of pocket mining villagers. News reports said, the flooding was worsened by illegal logging in the mountains of Compostela. Despite the declaration of a total log ban two years ago, logging still persists over hundreds of hectares of forests. It is not easy to accept any denial from government authorities that they are not aware of this.

We need not go far. In Baguio, tree cutting permits for hundreds of thousands of trees were issued by the DENR despite the issuance of the total log ban order a year earlier. PNoy should sack those responsible for the issuances of the permits, including the permits issued to SM, or they better resign before they bring more damage to the environment. Today, I am beginning to believe that when one makes a living out of being employed as a cabinet secretary for the environment department, he begins to forget or disregards deliberately that it takes a long time for an ecosystem to develop.

I am also beginning to entertain suspicions why people who should be in the forefront of questioning applications for tree-cutting permits are the ones who issue them. Were they bribed? Only god knows. Killing around 200 Luneta Hill trees in order to accommodate a multi-million profit-getting commercial parking area for SM will certainly disadvantage more than 300,000 Baguio residents. Clean air and water is not the only benefit gained from the small forest, but the sight of a green environment that serves as a mini carbon sink in the middle of a city will be gone. And another big parking lot will never solve the traffic problem in Baguio.

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By the way, as this is written, another petition by civil society groups, environmentalists in Manila, the Cultural Center of the Philippines and World Wildlife Fund Philippines is in the social network and wanting to be signed. The petition written by a group called“SOS Manila Bay Coalition” is opposed to plans to reclaim bay areas along Roxas Boulevard that were apparently approved by the city council of Manila last year. True, the construction boom anywhere would benefit the country as a whole but this comes at a price that money cannot buy - the Manila Bay sunset.

The petitioners said “sunset on Manila Bay is a spectacular experience and free for all to enjoy.” But this may no longer be when greedy developers (like the builders of the proposed SM-Baguio parking lot) start building on the shores of Manila Bay. “Aside from blocking the view of the sunset from Malate and Ermita, the project will worsen floods and extinguish tourism along Roxas Boulevard,” the petitioners said. News reports said the reclamation will be implemented within 288 hectares in the bay area under an agreement between the Manila City government and Manila Gold Coast Development Corp. They added, “no aspect of this scheme will improve the City of Manila in any discernible way — it is all for the profit of a few individuals.” – marchfianza777@yahoo.com