Editorial - Disregarding the law

Even as justice for seven-year-old Stephanie Nicole Ella remains elusive, another student has been critically wounded by a stray bullet in the same city. Sixteen-year-old John Kurt Salang was asleep at his home in Bagong Silang when a bullet struck him in the head. The noise awakened his grandfather, who saw the boy bleeding and unconscious at around 12:40 a.m. on Tuesday.

Police investigators said gunfire was heard in the neighborhood on that night, apparently arising from a gang or fraternity war. A slug was also recovered from the roof of a neighbor’s house.

Ella was struck in the head by a bullet on New Year’s Eve as she watched the fireworks outside her house in Caloocan. She died days later in a hospital. Several men were questioned by police but all were released.

In Salang’s case, the gunfire erupted in his neighborhood during an election gun ban. Police said two fraternity groups had clashed in the neighborhood hours earlier. Some of the fraternity members were reportedly seen gathering in the area but ran away shortly before gunfire was heard.

The incident shows how much more is needed to enforce the election gun ban. In all elections, authorities cancel civilians’ permits to carry guns outside residences. The ban, however, is routinely ignored, with candidates and their supporters being murdered or intimidated. In several areas, police and military personnel, who are authorized to carry guns outside their homes, are the ones used by politicians for harassment and murder.

As Salang’s case has shown, the violence is not limited to politics. Criminals and even school thugs ignore the gun ban, believing that they can get away with disregarding the law. The culprit in Salang’s case must be found and prosecuted, and the manhunt for Nicole Ella’s killer must be intensified. Only the arrest of lawbreakers will discourage similar tragedies.