Vice President Leni Robredo. OVP photo
Proposals to arm village officials to fight drugs and crime and priests to defend themselves are projecting a state of lawlessness and government failure to protect citizens, Vice President Leni Robredo said.
In an ambush interview during her visit to a canning company in the village of Ayala in Zamboanga City, Robredo said the proposal to arm village officials was an indication of peace and order failure.
“Are we saying there’s already a state of lawlessness?” Robredo said.
“That we now fight one another?” she added.
“Does this mean we can no longer be protected by peacekeeping officials?” she said. “That’s the first question.”
No mandate
She said it was not the mandate of village officials to bear arms and killing was not a solution to criminality.
“If our solution to criminality is to kill, the solution to peace and order would be for everyone to bear arms,” Robredo said.
“What this means is we’re admitting that it’s the only solution left,” she said.
Instead of promoting guns to keep the peace, Robredo said law enforcers should take a deeper look into why criminality is rising despite anticrime measures being exhausted.
Ineffective?
“If you will ask me, let’s check why this is happening,” Robredo said.
“Why is the crime rate rising despite the fact that the government has tried so many anticrime programs?” she said.
“Does this mean that what the government is doing is ineffective that whatever it does, the rise in crime rate is not arrested?” she added.
“I’m not in favor of arming government officials with no mandate to bear arms,” Robredo said.
“And to arm priests, that’s not the solution,” she added.
“The cause should be determined and we should focus on that,” she said.
President Duterte had repeatedly said he wanted to arm village officials for them to help in the war on drugs and crime.
The Department of the Interior and Local Government was studying Mr. Duterte’s proposal but Sen. Panfilo Lacson, former police chief, said that if government funds would be used to purchase firearms for village officials, it should first be approved by Congress.
Lacson said any funds that would be used to purchase firearms for village officials should be allocated in the government’s national budget.—JULIE ALIPALA