P’sinan mayors want to carry guns outside homes

CALASIAO, Pangasinan — Concerned with their own safety after last Sunday’s killing of the mayor of Tayug town, mayors in the province now want to arm themselves.

They are requesting the Philippine National Police to grant them permits to carry their firearms outside their homes.

In a resolution, the mayors condemned the killing of Tayug Mayor Guerrero Zaragoza by suspected communist guerrillas in a cockpit arena last Sunday.

The mayors, in a meeting in a hotel here the other day which was presided by Binalonan Mayor Ramon Guico, president of the Pangasinan Mayors’ League, demanded that permits be granted them not only to carry short weapons but also long firearms.

Guico, president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, said he immediately called PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. to relay his colleagues’ request.

He said Ebdane initially agreed to give the mayors permits to carry only short firearms, and that permits for long firearms would be evaluated on a "case-to-case basis" depending on the gravity of the situation in their respective areas.

Sto. Tomas Mayor Antonio Villar Jr., an adviser of the local mayors’ league, said that although death threats are part of a mayor’s life, what happened to Zaragoza somehow has a chilling effect on most of them, especially those who are lax with their security.

He said arming the mayors would at least give them protection as they perform their tasks.

Malasiqui Mayor Alfonso Soriano, the league’s vice president, said, "We are used to trials. Violence is not the best solution to any problem. Violence begets violence."

During the meeting, Senior Superintendent Mario Sandiego, provincial police director, updated the mayors on the progress of their investigation into Zaragoza’s killing.

Sandiego promised to help the mayors process their documents for the firearm permits.

He said Zaragoza’s assailants really planned the killing, which, according to intelligence reports, should have been carried out in the second week of June but was postponed because of the recent typhoon.

The New People’s Army has not owned up to the killing because Sandiego said the pre-dawn attack also left six innocent civilians wounded.

The cockpit caretaker was also killed and one of Zaragoza’s bodyguards was also wounded in the attack.

"That’s bad because they (the rebels) are further alienating themselves from the masses," he said.