DAVAO CITY, Philippines—Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte has indicated he is not inclined to submit to a 31-day gun ban imposed on the city by his own daughter, Mayor Sara Duterte, in line with the Araw ng Dabaw celebrations, saying the ban was unconstitutional.
The gun ban was sought by his daughter in a bid to curb crimes during the festivities, which started March 1. The gun ban, which was signed by Philippine National Police Director Nicanor Bartolome, was endorsed by the city’s Peace and Order Council, which the younger Duterte heads.
She said she did not mind that even her own bodyguards had complained they were uncomfortable securing her without firearms.
But her father, who had long wielded political power in Davao and is now vice mayor because of a law that limits a mayor to three consecutive terms, said the gun ban was unconstitutional.
First, he said, there was no public notice before it was imposed. Second, it was signed on March 7 but made retroactive to March 1. And thirdly, he said, it unlawfully suspended the privilege to carry firearms by citizens with licensed guns.
He said because it was unlawful to suspend these privileges, except during elections, he never toyed with the idea even in the face of rising crime incidence when he was mayor.
“Even in the darkest hours of Davao City, I never toyed with the idea,” the elder Duterte said.
He said a case in point was the recent dismissal by the city prosecutor’s office of the charges against a forester caught with his licensed firearm during the gun ban. The prosecutor’s office, the elder Duterte said, ruled that the gun ban was illegal because it had not been published prior to implementation.
He said because the prosecutor had ruled against the gun ban, the directive has now become a piece of “scrap of paper.”
“You can arrest the police officer arresting you and file a complaint against him before the Ombudsman,” the elder Duterte told Councilor Jimmy Dureza, who asked what he should do if arrested for carrying a gun with a valid license.
“The matter (to revoke the circular) is now in the hands of the police,” he said.
Despite the vice mayor’s opposition, the police continues to implement the gun ban, and the local chief of police, Senior Superintendent Ronald dela Rosa, claims it has been very helpful in curbing criminality. He did not provide figures for comparison, however.