Ban on carrying of firearms for 150 days
Source: Agencies |
January 14, 2013, Monday
|
Print Edition
Print Edition
A 150-day ban on the carrying of firearms outside homes across the Philippines began yesterday to prevent violence that could erupt during May 13 congressional and local polls in a country awash with weapons and plagued by a history of deadly rivalries.
Commission on Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr said the ban, which ends on June 12, suspends all permits to carry firearms in public areas and exempts only top officials, on-duty troops and police, and people facing threats. Violators could be jailed up to six years.
Election and police officials staged a march in metropolitan Manila and inspected security checkpoints to dramatize their call for peaceful mid-term polls - an often-futile goal in a country where rivalry for power among old and new political clans has been blamed for violence and fraud in past years.
In the country's worst elections-related violence, 58 people, including 32 media workers, were killed by over 100 gunmen in a 2009 massacre blamed on a political rivalry between two powerful clans in southern Maguindanao province. The existence of private militias and more than half a million unlicensed firearms have fueled fears of violence, officials said.
Army-backed police contingents began to enforce the ban on guns and armed bodyguards, especially in about 800 towns in 15 provinces considered security hotspots because of a recent history of poll violence or the presence of private armed groups, Eelections Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said.
Commission on Elections Chairman Sixto Brillantes Jr said the ban, which ends on June 12, suspends all permits to carry firearms in public areas and exempts only top officials, on-duty troops and police, and people facing threats. Violators could be jailed up to six years.
Election and police officials staged a march in metropolitan Manila and inspected security checkpoints to dramatize their call for peaceful mid-term polls - an often-futile goal in a country where rivalry for power among old and new political clans has been blamed for violence and fraud in past years.
In the country's worst elections-related violence, 58 people, including 32 media workers, were killed by over 100 gunmen in a 2009 massacre blamed on a political rivalry between two powerful clans in southern Maguindanao province. The existence of private militias and more than half a million unlicensed firearms have fueled fears of violence, officials said.
Army-backed police contingents began to enforce the ban on guns and armed bodyguards, especially in about 800 towns in 15 provinces considered security hotspots because of a recent history of poll violence or the presence of private armed groups, Eelections Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said.
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