LINES OF THOUGHT ACROSS SOUTHEAST ASIA

Locked 'n' loaded

A series of high-profile shooting sprees has prompted a temporary tightening of gun laws in the Philippines in the run up to national elections

SEA Globe
May 2, 2013
Locked 'n' loaded

A series of high-profile shooting sprees has prompted a temporary tightening of gun laws in the Philippines in the run up to national elections

Jaime “Jimmy” Santiago checks his service pistol before attending the hearing of a case at the Regional Trial Court in Manila.

Guns in the Philippines
Photo: Romeo Ranoco/Reuters

Once a police officer who led a special weapons and tactics (SWAT) unit, Santiago traded his police uniform for a black judge’s robe and is now a lower court judge in Manila. Santiago supports arming Filipino judges so that they can protect themselves from discontented litigants who are unable to accept court decisions and criminal organisations whose members are sent to jail.
In January this year, a disgruntled Canadian national went on a shooting spree in a courtroom on Cebu Island, killing two and injuring a prosecutor before being shot himself. In the same month, a failed candidate in an election for village chief killed eight of his neighbours when he opened fire, and a gun barrage at a police roadblock resulted in 13 fatalities.
Such incidents have rekindled the growing national debate over firearms regulation in a country whose enthusiastic gun culture rivals America’s. It is legal to carry a gun in public with a permit, yet this regulation is not always well enforced. Currently, police estimate the number of unregistered guns in private hands to be approximately 500,000.
A temporary ban on carrying guns in public has now been imposed in an attempt to curb violence in the run up to national elections in May. The ban is scheduled to be lifted on June 12.
 
 
 
 
Also view
“The vanishing” – In recent decades, thousands of people across Southeast Asia have disappeared, often at the hands of governments or their agents, and those seeking the return of a loved one often find themselves in an information black hole
“City slicker” – February’s photos of the month
“All quiet on the southern front?” – Filipinos displaced by war look forward to returning home
“Mother’s milk” – Big business is threatening the Philippines’ progressive breastfeeding culture
“The going is good” – Cesar Purisima has steered the Philippine economy to a stellar performance in 2012 – but can he continue to propel the country forward in the long term?
 
 
 
 
 



Read more articles