Aquino ribs Llamas over firearms incident

Is he the new Rambo in the guise of a Cabinet officer?

Some people may think so but insofar as Malacañang is concerned, it wasn’t much more than an unfortunate incident blown out of proportions by some critics.

In any case, presidential political adviser Ronald Llamas yesterday got a ribbing—and some advice—when President Benigno Aquino III introduced his Cabinet at the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Local Government Code.

Llamas recently captured headlines after two of his security escorts figured in a road accident and police discovered a Soviet-made AK-47 rifle hidden inside their car. Llamas was at the time visiting Switzerland and he has since dismissed the two guards.

Reporting on the AK-47 incident, one radio station referred to the presidential adviser as “Rambo Llamas.”

At the festivities of the Department of Local Government (DILG) in Pasay City, Mr. Aquino began his speech by greeting his Cabinet secretaries. Then, after a pause, he called out Llamas, eliciting laughter from the audience.

“Maybe you are thinking Ronald Llamas is hiding. He’s present and accounted for,” Mr. Aquino said, joining in the laughter.

‘Favorite subject’

Llamas told reporters later that he reported the road accident to the President but that they talked more about his meeting with officials at the UN High Commissioner for Refugees in Geneva, Switzerland, than about the “favorite subject” of the media now.

Llamas noted that Mr. Aquino referred to the incident “in a joking mood” at the DILG celebration “and it also seemed I was teased a little about it.”

He said that during their talk, Mr. Aquino asked about the “context of the events and the political implications that it might be used by our detractors to make a big thing out of the issue.”

Llamas said the President also asked him about his documents for the firearms, which he had acquired as a safety measure. The Philippine National Police has said Llamas’ papers were in order.

‘Be like a man’

Asked whether the President was convinced some people were just trying to make a big thing of the matter, Llamas said Mr. Aquino was probably more concerned about the many problems facing the country.

Llamas dismissed a call from opposition Representative Ignacio Arroyo for him to resign, saying it was the President who decides such matters, “definitely not Iggy Arroyo.”

Llamas has justified owning five guns, including the  AK-47, because of “credible” death threats triggered by his being a member of the President’s inner circle. Two of the guns were discovered in his sports utility vehicle, which figured in the accident.

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago blasted Llamas for owning so many guns. She recalled that she was not allowed to carry many guns outside her house despite the death threats she received when she was commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration in the 1990s.

“You’ve got to be ready to face things like a man,” Santiago said, speaking to reporters. “He is a presidential adviser for political affairs. Since it turns out that he’s afraid of politics, then he should resign.”

Why so many guns?

The senator, herself a gun enthusiast, recalled that government rules required her to leave her firearms at home despite the threats to her life.

“That was the rule. Be ready to be fired upon and to die, croak your last,” she said.

Santiago questioned the need for Llamas to own so many guns, given that his position was not as sensitive as that of an “anticrime czar” and that “he doesn’t investigate criminal syndicates.”

Santiago added in Filipino: “This is the reason why our society is in trouble.  Any rascal can get an exemption if he knows someone at PNP.”

Restrictions needed

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said it was “unreasonable” to declare a gun ban among public officials.

“People do have different levels of security risks,” Robredo said in a text message. He was reacting to a statement by the antiweapons crusader Gunless Society, which has pushed for a year-round gun ban among private citizens and public officials.

Robredo said he does not carry a gun when he is in Metro Manila, “but I have a PTFCOR (permit to carry firearms outside residence). I carry one when I am in the province because I do not have security personnel,

Asked if he believed restrictions must be set for public officials regarding gun ownership, Robredo said, without elaborating: “There should be.”

Privilege

Muntinlupa Representative Rodolfo Biazon, a former chief of staff of the Armed Forces of the Philippines, called for a stricter gun control law and said an individual should only be allowed one short and one long firearm to defend his life.

“You have only two hands anyway so why the need for more than two firearms? You cannot possibly fire more than two weapons at a time,” said Biazon, who is the author of a bill providing for stiffer penalties for crimes relating to guns.

He said owning a firearm was only a privilege and not a right as it is subject to state control.

Parañaque Representative Roilo Golez, a former Navy commander, said the PNP should be allowed to thoroughly investigate the case “without obstruction.”

Golez agreed that Llamas had a high level of risk as a political adviser to the President, in the same way that a cashier or disbursing officer had a different risk level compared to an ordinary individual. With reports from DJ Yap and Cynthia D. Balana

Originally posted: 8:38 pm | Tuesday, October 11th, 2011