Land of a thousand guns
FIREARMS BUSINESS FLOURISHING UNDER DUTERTE’S RULE
Aquino III signed in 2013 Republic Act (RA) 10591, which mandates stricter rules for gun owners to renew their licences to possess firearms every two years, registration of the firearms needs to be renewed every four years. In that period there are an estimated one million unregistered guns.
Due to the implementation of the RA 10591 gun sales declined by as much as 80 per cent and at least 8,000 people who were employed in the legitimate gun-making industry, security and peripheral businesses, lost their jobs.
But under the current administration under President Rodrigo Duterte, the firearms business is starting to pick up and appears to be on a resurgence as more people realise the need to have their guns properly documented with authoritiesm Vijungco says.
Neal Ceniza, the branch manager of Armscor shop and service centre at Krame Arcade in Quezon City, said business is starting to pick up these days that aside from their stall selling firearms and accessories, they opened in mid-February a new shooting range at their shop adjacent to the Philippine National Police headquarters in Camp Rafael Crame.
Armscor is among the recognised pioneers in the business of manufacturing and selling guns as well as ammunition. Other than producing firearms and ammunition, it operates five shooting ranges — three in Luzon, and one each in the Visayas and Mindanao.
Its ammunition factory in Marikina operates 24 hours on three shifts.
Jho Ibay, head of Armscor’s Corporate Communications says: “Filipinos have a certain affinity to guns and whatever opposition some people have to firearms seems to be overwhelmed by the positive opinion on guns and gun ownership.”
Aside from Armscor, there are a number of other gun makers in the country, but most of them manufacture pistols.
Men in the Philippines — and increasingly women — use and flaunt their guns as matrons would their jewellery or gentlemen their fine Swiss watches.
Ibay says sales of guns from Armscor had been witnessing growth over the past years and a couple of years back, they have gone to exporting pistols, as well as rifles and shotguns under the brand name Rock Island Armory (RIA), as well as ammunition of various popular local calibres. “We ship several million rounds of ammunition from at least 20 countries. The Philippines is the biggest importer and manufacturer of 1911 .45 calibre pistols and almost all of these are manufactured by Armscor,” she said adding that only about a quarter of the firm’s production of guns are consumed by the Philippine market, the rest are shipped abroad.
Ibay says aside from security, an increasing number of Filipinos buy guns mainly for sport and recreation. Ibay says home security is still the main reason cited by people when they purchase firearms from them.
One person who has closely watched the growth of shooting Senator Leila De Lima was detained in a jail at the headquarters of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Metro Manila’s suburban Quezon City after her arrest from the Senate for three drug-related cases.
The legislator is being accused of protecting convicted international and local drug lords from 2010 to 2016, when she was Justice Secretary, to raise millions of pesos for her senatorial bid with the Liberal Party in the May 2016 polls.
“A motion to quash the case against de Lima and question the jurisdiction of a lower court in suburban Muntinlupa on her case were filed, resolutions of which would take days,” said her lawyer Bonifacio Tacardon, adding they will raise the same issue in the Supreme Court.
Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre alleged the government had “thwarted plans” of pro-De Lima factions to offer P100 million (Dh8.3 million) to eight convicted international and local drug lords to officially recant their testimonies against De Lima.
After emerging from the Senate where she was arrested at 8am, De Lima said, “I have the honour to be imprisoned for something I’m fighting for [questioning alleged human rights violation of President Duterte]. I am innocent. There is no truth to the lies I am charged with — that I benefited from illegal drug trade. The truth will come out at the right time.”
“I’ll get over this,” De Lima added. sport among Filipinos is Jun Miranda-Martinez.
The 50-year-old gun buff, who moderates a number of firearm-related Facebook sites, said the growth of shooting sport got a boost with the establishment of the Philippine Practical Shooters Association (PPSA).
PPSA is a federation of gun clubs. Established in 1982, the organisation is now made up of 193 practical shooting clubs in the Philippines, and also one in Kuwait.
“The number of shooting clubs that want to be accredited by the PPSA is on the uptrend,” said Martinez.
Filipinos’ penchant for sport shooting partly feeds the country’s arms production industry as well as trade. Businesses import firearms and ammunition from abroad.