Duterte promises to seize all illegal firearms in 1 year

ISSUING yet another bold promise, the tough-talking Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said he would seize all illegal firearms in a year, if he and his running mate Sen. Alan Peter Cayetano are victorious in May.

“I am telling our countrymen, if you want someone who does not bad-mouth and who is very civil and courteous, pick him or her. But if you want promises delivered despite my curses, I will deliver,” Duterte said in a statement on Friday.

“In the first year of my government, I will seize all loose firearms and end drugs and criminality,” he said, noting recent government statistics showing that 99 percent of the guns that figure in criminal incidents were classified as “loose.”

Duterte said the possession of loose firearms, which itself is a crime, points to violent crimes such as murder, homicide, illegal drug trade and random shooting.

According to a recent Philippine National Police report, 42 people were victims of stray bullet incidents, many allegedly involving loose guns. Majority of the incidents occurred at the height of last year’s raucous New Year’s Eve celebration, from Dec. 31 to Jan. 1.

Some of the injured included an 8-year-old girl from Iloilo City who sustained a gunshot wound on her right thigh.

Cayetano said that should their team win, he and Duterte would launch a crackdown on illegal gun manufacturers and dealers and push for more stringent background checks.

“The government itself has admitted that 1.7 million registered firearms in the country have been found to have been registered using fictitious or questionable information. This is unacceptable,” Cayetano said.