Firearms owners in the Philippines are fighting efforts by the government and private groups to curb gun ownership.
A lawsuit on the right to bear arms has been filed by a prominent gun enthusiast, and groups defending the right to own guns are recruiting members to counter rival bodies seeking to restrict the number of guns in private hands.
Ironically, the campaign for the right to own guns gained strength when President Gloria Arroyo in January issued an order banning civilians from carrying their weapons outside of their homes.
The order effectively revoked hundreds of permits to carry firearms that the Interior Department had already issued to private citizens who said they needed guns for self-protection or professional reasons.
Holders of such permits had each paid as much as 7,000 pesos (US$131) in fees to get them. Arroyo's order did not offer any refund.
In an unprecedented move, the firearms rights group, Peaceful Responsible Owners of Guns (Pro-Gun), held a large rally to show its outrage.
"It was really rough for us. Some people had just been issued a permit on the same day that they came out with the order" cancelling the permits, said Pro-Gun secretary general Andy Apostol.
Pro-Gun president Mike Melchor said some 12,000 people were affected by the order.
Officials then appeared to backtrack, saying the firearms permits were only being reviewed to strengthen safeguards and weed out unqualified people.
New permits to carry firearms will be issued and those who paid for their old permits will have the balance of their fees taken into account, the department has said.
Pro-Gun argues that the crackdown on guns mainly affects the licensed owners of firearms and does nothing about the unlicensed guns in the hands of criminals, communist insurgents and Muslim separatists.
Frank Chavez, a former chief government lawyer, filed a petition with the Supreme Court to have Arroyo's order suspended on the grounds that it was unconstitutional.
Carlo Ybanez, a lawyer who helped draft Chavez's petition, conceded that Filipinos, unlike Americans, do not have the right to bear arms enshrined in their Constitution.
"But we can argue that we have the right to carry arms because it is intertwined to our rights to protect life, especially here in the Philippines where we all know that the police cannot protect the citizens," he said.
Officials said 800,000 firearms licenses had been issued this year to civilians and government officials.
Another 328,000 firearms are believed held by civilians without police authorization.
This does not include the guns in the hands of rebel groups like the communist New People's Army and the Muslim separatist Moro Islamic Liberation Front.
Many Filipinos feel they must carry guns to protect themselves, especially in rural areas where rebels and bandit gangs are active in extortion and kidnapping for ransom.
Oscar Tan, president of a grocery store owners' association in the southern city of Cotabato, said "It would be very difficult for us traders who are easy targets of kidnappings to roam around" after Arroyo's order.
However Nandy Pacheco, president of the Gun-less Society, a group advocating firearms control, says the public would be safer if fewer people were allowed to carry guns in public.
Pacheco said Filipinos often showed off their masculinity by flaunting their guns and used them even over trivial matters.
"You know the Filipinos: even just with traffic problems, there will be gunbattles," he said.
While his group is in favor of "progressive disarmament," it has not called for banning people from keeping guns in their homes and for sport.
Under existing laws, most Filipinos are allowed to own only two guns: one "long arm" -- a shotgun or a .22 caliber rifle, and one handgun.
Just getting a license for each gun requires certificates of employment, clearances from police officials, mayors and courts, drug and psychiatric tests and the payment of fees.
Even then, a license-holder can only keep guns at home. A much-valued "permit to carry" is required to transport the guns. Procuring that needs more clearances and fees.
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
Conjoined twins Lori and George Schappell, who pursued separate careers, interests and relationships during lives that defied medical expectations, died this month in Pennsylvania, funeral home officials said. They were 62. The twins, listed by Guinness World Records as the oldest living conjoined twins, died on April 7 at the Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, obituaries posted by Leibensperger Funeral Homes of Hamburg said. The cause of death was not detailed. “When we were born, the doctors didn’t think we’d make 30, but we proved them wrong,” Lori said in an interview when they turned 50, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported. The
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of
IN PURSUIT: Israel’s defense minister said the revenge attacks by Israeli settlers would make it difficult for security forces to find those responsible for the 14-year-old’s death Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Saturday condemned the “heinous murder” of an Israeli teenager in the occupied West Bank as attacks on Palestinian villages intensified following news of his death. After Benjamin Achimeir, 14, was reported missing near Ramallah on Friday, hundreds of Jewish settlers backed by Israeli forces raided nearby Palestinian villages, torching vehicles and homes, leaving at least one villager dead and dozens wounded. The attacks escalated in several villages on Saturday after Achimeir’s body was found near the Malachi Hashalom outpost. Agence France-Presse correspondents saw smoke rising from burned houses and fields. Mayor Amin Abu Alyah, of the