EDITORIAL – Another crackdown

It’s always good to hear authorities vowing to renew the crackdown on private armed groups. Interior Secretary Jose Lina Jr. ordered the Philippine National Police to implement the crackdown following the killing last week of an Ateneo law graduate in Pasay City. Jose Ramon Llamas was shot dead by a motorcycle rider armed with a .9mm pistol. The killer is at large.

Previous crackdowns on private armed groups have led to big hauls of loose firearms. But somehow guns continue to enter the country. The best explanation for this is that authorities are having a hard time fighting smuggling. The worst speculation is that the confiscated guns eventually end up back in the hands of criminals and private armed groups, sold for a profit by government custodians. Captured Muslim rebels have said they often buy their guns from soldiers and cops in Mindanao.

Let’s hope this time the crackdown will be a genuine one, aimed at the groups that pose the greatest threat to the nation. Previous crackdowns have been used merely as an excuse to increase fees for gun licenses and permits of people who bother to register their guns, mostly civilians who advocate responsible gun ownership. The crackdowns generally bypass the private armies of politicians, crime groups such as the Pentagon kidnapping gang and its mother organization, the Moro Islamic Liberation Front, and extortionist communists.

We all want to see a gunless society. But many civilians, including some priests in Mindanao, are forced to keep firearms because the government cannot do its job of protecting the people from kidnappers, carjackers, extortionists and the Akyat-Bahay burglary gang. In se-veral cases, cops and soldiers themselves, armed with government-issued weapons, have perpetrated crimes. How do you protect yourself from armed and dangerous men in uniform?

The public lauds any government effort to crack down on loose firearms. This time let’s hope the cops truly go after private armed groups, including the armies of the rich and powerful. And let’s hope the cops will go after rogues in uniform. Witnesses, after all, have said the suspect in Jose Ramon Llamas’ killing had introduced himself as a cop.