Unlicensed guns next target in ARMM

COTABATO CITY—The highest ranking officer in charge of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) is dangling amnesty for illegal gun owners to account for unlicensed firearms in the violence-wracked region.

Mujiv Hataman, acting ARMM governor, said he was giving unlicensed gun owners the chance to have their weapons registered in a bid to document all firearms in the region and prevent the use of these for crimes.

Hataman said the amnesty offer was part of the Aquino administration’s and his campaign to bring in real reforms in the country’s poorest but resource-rich region where theft of public funds has enriched officials but buried the region’s people deeper in poverty.

Hataman, in a news conference, said he was coordinating with government law enforcement agencies to implement the amnesty plan.

Gun possession in the five provinces of ARMM—Maguindanao, Lanao del Sur, Basilan, Sulu and Tawi-Tawi—has been considered a status symbol and a way of life.

Hataman admitted that the region is very rich in loose firearms, including those in the hands of Moro rebels.

“This administration is also tapping the support of the religious communities in the region to help us push forward this plan of putting an end to the seemingly unstoppable proliferation of loose firearms in the autonomous region,” he said.

Lawyer Anwar Malang, acting ARMM executive secretary, said Hataman had recommended to the national government the deployment of more prosecutors to ARMM to help litigate many cases of vendetta killings.

“This is to stop the practice of aggrieved parties resorting to retaliation than bringing the case before the bar of justice,” Malang said.

Military and police estimates of the number of loose firearms in ARMM are as high as 40,000 in the region’s five provinces.

Hataman is scheduled to convene the Regional Peace and Order Council this week to receive updates on the peace and order situation in the region more than a week after he assumed office as OIC governor.

Also this week, Hataman is expected to announce the composition of his official cabinet that will help him institute genuine reforms in the corruption-laden region.

His first act after being installed by Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo was to cancel all existing logging permits issued by former ARMM officials, a directive he received from President Aquino. Edwin Fernandez, Inquirer Mindanao