Customs authorities at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) held yesterday a shipment of high-powered Heckler and Kock firearms from Great Britain for failure of a Makati-based importing company to present the required permit from the Firearms and Explosives Division of the Philippine National Police. Although Tri-Mark Ventures has a license to import firearms and ammunition, NAIA Customs District Collector Celso Templo said that the company did not have a... (GunPolicy.org)

NATIONAL Anti-Kidnapping Task Force (Naktaf) Chief Deputy Director General Hermogenes Ebdane favors arming citizens as long as they are psychologically and physically fit. Ebdane said there is a smaller likelihood that kidnappers would attack if civilians are armed. There are some dealers who offer a lower price for as long as you know how to handle a gun, Ebdane said, in an ambush interview during Wednesday's graduation of Naktaf's second batch of motorcycle-riding... (GunPolicy.org)

ISABELA, Philippines — The main public hospital here serves 300,000 people and has next to nothing. No running water. No medicines. No ambulance. No anesthetic. "If a patient needs surgery, we write a prescription for anesthesia," explained Lino Ventulero, administrative officer of the hospital. "The patient goes out and fills it and comes back." Or dies. But that's life at this forlorn hospital on Basilan, the impoverished island where American troops are set to... (GunPolicy.org)

Metro Manila police chief Director Edgar Aglipay warned the public against firing of guns and use of powerful firecrackers during the Christmas and New Year revelries. Instead, Aglipay urged Filipinos to use the old method of noise-making like the torotot or kanyon kawayan in welcoming the two holidays. Aglipay is hoping that the early warning against indiscriminate firing and the use of firecrackers would help lessen the number of casualties during the two... (GunPolicy.org)

Metro Manila's streets may teem with scenes similar to those in wild, wild, West movies if the government pushes through with its plan to arm civilians to combat kidnapping and other crimes, Senator Rodolfo Biazon said Friday. Biazon raised fears that if people get hold of guns to combat crime, we might be creating more problems. We might have chaos on the streets and create more problems if we arm them without putting in the necessary security measures … I think... (GunPolicy.org)

DANAO, Philippines — In a hillside shanty next door to his one-room house, Romeo Baton clamped a vise around a hunk of steel in the rough form of a .357 Magnum revolver and began filing the edges. The gunsmith specializes in revolvers, and it takes him 12 days to fabricate a weapon. When he finishes the gun, with its burnished steel and blunt barrel, he will stamp the words on the side: "Made in USA. Smith & Wesson. Springfield, Mass." "You cannot distinguish... (GunPolicy.org)

MANILA — Philippine national police chief General Roberto Lastimoso said Monday an experimental gun ban ordered by President Joseph Estrada will take effect Tuesday across the country. The ban will be in place until rash of killings and violent crimes involving use of loose firearms were neutralized, Lastimoso said. Lastimoso's announcement came after six gunmen strafed an armored van and its back-up vehicle Monday morning in a Manila suburb, killing two security... (GunPolicy.org)

MANILA — Philippine National Police Chief Director General Santiago Alino said here on Thursday that the police had confiscated 847 firearms nationwide since the imposition of the gun ban. Alino said he expect more weapons to be confiscated since he had directed a stepped-up campaign against violators of the election gun ban. He warned violators that once caught, they will be charged with illegal possession of firearms and violation of the Commission on Elections... (GunPolicy.org)

MANILA — Philippine gunowners will be banned from carrying their weapons in public when campaigning for presidential elections officially begins on Sunday, a police official said on Friday. "Anyone who has a licenced firearm who would want to bring that firearm (outside his residence) has to secure an exemption from the Commission on Elections," Jaime Lasar, head of the firearms and explosives division of the Philippine National Police, told reporters on Friday. The... (GunPolicy.org)

DAVAO CITY — The Basilan provincial police command in co-ordination with military authorities has finalized plans for the implementation of a firearms ban mandated by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) from January 11 to June 10 this year. The gun ban covers the election period for the May 1998 local and national elections. Provincial police director Supt. Isah Abdullah said checkpoints will be established in entry and exit points to all centers of the province's... (GunPolicy.org)