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Here we go again. In the wake of a shootout between officers of the
Philippine National Police (PNP) and a group of suspected armed
robbers in Parañaque last week, certain quarters are once more
proposing a gun ban.
The 40-minute gunfight between operatives of
the PNP Special Action Force (SAF) and Highway Patrol Group and
suspected robbers occurred at the United Parañaque Subdivision 4 in
Barangay Marcelo Green. The fatalities included eight suspects, a
volunteer neighborhood watchman, an SAF officer—and two apparent
crossfire victims, a 53-year-old man and his seven-year-old
daughter.
Also hit was the leader of the police team who
was last reported in critical condition.
Initial media reports quoted unnamed witnesses
as saying that the father-and-daughter casualties were hit by police
who mistook the van they were on for one of the suspects’ getaway
cars.
Director Leopoldo Bataoil, chief of the
National Capital Region Police Office, however, appealed to the
public “not to hastily conclude that it was the police who shot
the civilian victims.” Metro Manila’s top cop, nonetheless, said
that all the lawmen involved in the incident would face thorough
investigation—not only by the PNP but also by other government
agencies, such as the Commission on Human Rights.
Friday’s incident was not the first time
lawmen found themselves in hot water following what they claimed to
be armed encounters with alleged criminals.
In November 2005 three suspected carjackers
were killed in what operatives of the PNP Traffic Management Group (TMG)
claimed was a shootout at the Ortigas Center. An amateur video clip
of the incident, however, belied the authorities’ version of the
incident.
The video recording, taken surreptitiously from
the window of a building near the crime scene, showed TMG
plainclothes officers firing assault rifles in full-auto mode on the
three suspects inside their car. Although grainy, the video clip did
not show the suspects holding up guns or opening fire on the police.
The incident came to be known as the Ortigas
rubout. The officers involved were investigated, but three years
later the case has been virtually forgotten.
A no-nonsense resolution of the Ortigas case
would have not only served as an important lesson to the offending
TMG agents and other similarly trigger-happy lawmen. Just as
important, it should have motivated the PNP high command to
formulate the proper rules of engagement, to order the retraining of
front-line officers and to adopt other measures that could avoid the
use of excessive police officer in future encounters.
Friday’s grisly incident in Parañaque merely
proved that since 2005 the PNP has done little, if anything at all,
to rein the hair-trigger tendencies of its officers.
Knee-jerk reaction
Just as lamentable was the knee-jerk reaction
of certain quarters to last week’s “shootout.”
For one, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino
Pimentel Jr. has issued a statement calling for “strict gun
control.”
Pimentel urged law enforcement authorities to
study the possibility of prohibiting civilians, even those with the
necessary permits, from carrying loaded firearms outside their
residences.
“The Parañaque shootout should prod the
government to adopt a strict gun policy. Nobody but law enforcers
should be allowed to carry loaded firearms,” Pimentel said.
Evidently, the senator needs to be informed
that it was the police who carried “loaded firearms” during the
Friday incident. The civilian fatalities, for whose sake Pimentel
said he was raising the call for “strict gun control,” had in
fact been unarmed.
Not once has it been pointed out that limiting
the right—or privilege—of civilians to defend themselves with
firearms would only embolden criminals who, by definition, have no
respect for the law.
Experience Down Under
Take the case of Australia.
It has been over a year since gun owners Down
Under were forced to turn in 640,381 personal firearms, which were
destroyed—a program that cost Australia taxpayers more than $500
million.
The first-year results of the program showed
that Australia-wide, homicide cases increased 6.2 percent, assaults
9.6 percent and armed robberies 44 percent. In the state of Victoria
alone, homicides with firearms rose 300 percent.
The crime statistics proved that while
law-abiding Australians surrendered their gun, the criminals did
not.
According to Ed Chenel, an Australian police
officer, figures over the previous 25 years showed a steady decrease
in armed robbery with firearms. “This has changed drastically
upward in the past 12 months, since the criminals now are guaranteed
that their prey is unarmed.”
Chenel points out: “The Australian experience
speaks for itself. Guns in the hands of honest citizens save lives
and property and, yes, gun-control laws affect only the law-abiding
citizens.”
dansoy26@yahoo.com
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