Awash with guns
As of early evening yesterday, Vhon Tanto remained at large. Police reported receiving feelers for his surrender even as the manhunt continued for the Army reservist identified by neighbors as the person seen on CCTV footage scuffling with a bicycle rider in Quiapo, Manila on Monday night.
The biker, Mark Vincent Geralde, got Tanto in a headlock. Video footage showed Tanto returning to his car, with Geralde following on the passenger side. Moments later, Tanto got out, this time with a handgun, and shot Geralde in the head. When the biker collapsed on the pavement, Tanto was seen firing more shots to finish him off.
It’s unclear if Tanto had a license and permit to carry the .45-caliber pistol in his car. Probers are still investigating if a stray bullet that critically wounded an 18-year-old girl near the crime scene came from the same gun. Both Geralde and teenage victim Rocel Bondoc, however, might have been spared from harm with tighter gun regulation.
The country is awash with guns. This is one of the factors behind criminality and what has to be the highest homicide rate in this part of the planet. Philippine gun laws are among the toughest in the world. Like most laws in this country, however, enforcement is spotty even during election periods when carrying guns outside residences is supposed to be banned.
Law enforcers are not entirely to blame. Among the biggest importers or smugglers of unlicensed guns are politicians, especially those who maintain private armies. In their turfs, these politicians and their security teams are often untouchable.
Then there are the threat groups such as the Abu Sayyaf and Bangsamoro Islamic Freedom Fighters as well as Islamic rebel groups. If information unearthed during the Senate probe on the slaughter of police commandos in Mamasapano was accurate, the Islamic rebels have their own gun manufacturing plants in Mindanao, capable of producing even low-precision copies of high-powered rifles. Because of the peace process, the rebels are also virtually untouchable.
But apart from the threat groups, there are also ordinary folks who find it easy to obtain guns – and use them. The killer of Mark Vincent Geralde is just one of them. President Duterte, who has launched a brutal war on drugs and criminality, must complement his campaign with tighter gun control. He doesn’t even need special powers for this necessary tool in fighting crime. All the laws are there. What is needed is enforcement.