Sales are mostly up during election season when rival politicians beef up their private armies or security forces and during Christmas, when people have extra money to spend for guns as gifts, he said.
Guns made in Danao have become so famous that Japanese Yakuzas were known in the past to fly to the central Philippines to collect them, townsfolk say. Military officials as well as local politicians also buy them for their own purposes.
"Everyone buys from us. The military officials, some foreigners too, and civilians for their protection," Garcia says, but stops short when asked if he has ever sold firearms to communist guerrillas who proliferate in the countryside.
Danao guns are bought on a cash basis, and deals are done without any papers changing hands. Word of honor is important between buyer and seller and anyone seeking to buy is screened thoroughly.
Tension is high around Garcia's compound, and his men are on alert because recently a special police task force swooped down on his neighbor's home and confiscated 160 pieces of "bakal," the local slang for guns.
There are no actual figures as to how many guns are produced in Danao at any given time, but Garcia estimates up to 500 units of various gun models are smuggled out of the area every month.
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