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A gun-toting administration

EDITORIAL
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10/12/2011

Quite frankly, it just doesn’t make sense for a presidential adviser, or for that matter, any Palace executive, as well as governors and members of Congress, to be licensed by the Philippine National Police (PNP) high-powered rifles that are claimed to have their permit to carry, outside of their homes.

As the rules say, only military and police in their uniforms detailed to the official are licensed to carry high-powered rifles, which may be acceptable under certain circumstances especially if they serve as security men of the official who is being targeted for death.

But it does not make any sense for a government official to be given the permit to carry high-powered rifles, even if he is under threat.

For such a “security conscious” official who has to have high-powered guns, he didn’t seem to realize that, as claimed, there was a car parked suspiciously near his residence. It was his neighbors that had alerted him about the “suspicious” parked car. One would have thought, if there were threats to his life and being security conscious, he would have easily spotted that claimed car that was casing his residence.

Then too, for a security conscious official, it was ridiculous of him to even give out his home address and even identified the school where his daughter is enrolled, apart of course from having his official car with everyone to identify easily instead of using a security plate.

But presidential adviser Ronald Llamas claimed that there is that need for him to have these high-powered guns with him since he can even up the firefight with those who want to kill him.

Is he saying that when he travels by car with all his security people, along with so many other vehicles filled with security men on a convoy basis, he has his high-powered rifle, always ready for a shoot-out?

Apparently so, because even when he was abroad, his official vehicle, with a low plate number met an accident and found inside were the high-powered guns and handguns which his security refused to hand over to the cops.

That is very strange, considering that Llamas claimed the firearms were all registered and, as he had initially claimed, there was nothing irregular or illegal about his men found with a rifle in the car.

Of course now he says he had strict instructions for his staff to secure his firearms and not bring these with them anywhere when he is not with his staff, presumably in his official vehicle.

It is almost certain that many, if not all, of Nonoy’s executives as well as Noynoy himself, are armed to the teeth, and not just with short arms, but M-16s and other high-powered rifles, which truly is strange, given the survey claims that theirs is a popular administration headed by a most popular president. So what are they scared of if, as claimed, that the people love them and that their popularity is not on the wane at all?

But the PNP’s explanation in absolving Llamas and pinning all blame on his staff, is its claim that all government officials, from governors up, are all granted permits for such high-powered guns.

Doesn’t the PNP realize how dangerous the situation can be when all these officials have registered high-powered guns and given their permits to carry? Not all incumbent officials are cool-headed, for one, nor declared absolutely mentally fit to carry high-powered firearms. A lot of bloody incidents leading to deaths will mark the country under gun-lover Noynoy.

We do have today a president who has the utak bang-bang, being a fanatic for guns of all sorts.

And as Noynoy is a gun enthusiast, many of his executives are raring to be part of his circle made up of his shooting buddies.

As Llamas claimed, he joins Noynoy in target shooting, too.

But one is familiar with the saying — those who live by the gun, die by the gun.

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