Lingering questions on the gun ban

SOME people are simply stubborn. They have already been warned about the enforcement of the gun ban starting last Sunday. They knew the consequences, too: arrest and imprisonment. Still, four flaunted the ban in the province on its first day and must now be staring at the four corners of prison as a reult. Deservingly so, if I may add.

This is the same recklessness that we continue to witness in the ongoing war on illegal drugs. The thousands of deaths, whether from legitimate encounters or by extrajudicial killings, should have already scared the living daylights out of those involved in the drugs business but they seem impervious to fear and continue to ply their trade unmindful of the dire consequences. Well, as in the case of the gun ban violators, the drug pests cannot claim to not having been sufficiently warned.

Here’s an interesting question, though regarding the gun ban violations. The prohibition to carry firearms is being implemented because the election season for barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan has set in. But the Senate and the House have already agreed to postpone the October 23 polls to May next year. President Duterte is expected to sign the bill into law. If the law is passed and the October 23 elections are postponed, the gun ban will necessarily have to be lifted. In fact, the correct proposition should be that it ceases to exist, with or without a formal Comelec declaration. In that event, what happens to the cases of those who have earlier been apprehended?

There is a rule that says that an absolute repeal of a law has the effect of depriving the court of authority to punish a person charged with a violation of the old law prior to its repeal. SSCebu