Yellow Pad
Ed Quitoriano

The November 2009 Ampatuan Massacre was too big and too heinous to be ignored.

In the aftermath, martial law in Maguindanao was declared. The government not only hauled the Ampatuan clan leaders — alleged perpetrators of the massacre — to prison, it also netted caches of weapons and ammunition enough to equip five battalions. It turned out that the clan was running a shadow state behind the façade of the regional, provincial and municipal governments where they acted as local chief executives. They had monopoly of the shadow economy in guns, at least in Maguindanao.

The February 2010 Maguindanao Chronicles of the PCIJ, laid out the details of the Ampatuan armory: 1,200 assorted firearms of which only 274 were registered and licensed to the clan members; 90 mm and 57 mm recoilless rifles; 60 mm mortars; a Cal. 50 Barrett sniper rifle, and half a million rounds of ammunition. On the day of the massacre, some of the clan’s 2000-strong private army were mounted on armored vehicles with the artillery. In Davao City, a P1-billion stash was found in the patriarch’s mansion.

Fast forward to May 2017. The Maute threat was too big to be ignored. President Rodrigo R. Duterte declared martial law not only for Marawi, where clashes erupted, but for the whole of Mindanao. Print, TV, and online news featured images similar to 2009: on the 10th day, the AFP had captured 98 high-powered firearms (The Philippine Star, June 1, 2017) including a Cal. 50 Barrett sniper rifle, M16s, M4s and a few AK 47s (The Freeman, June 14, 2017). P80 million in cash and checks were also recovered from a house suspected to be that of a Maute clan member.

Different actors, locations, and time frames but with a common denominator: the shadow economy in guns. This shadow economy offers not only small arms (weapons designed for individual use), but also light weapons (those designed for use by two or three persons but sometimes used by one person) that should not exist outside the hands of the state.

WHERE DO ILLEGAL GUNS COME FROM?
The number of guns captured by the AFP in Marawi had risen to 410 after six weeks of fighting (GMA News Online, July 4, 2017). There are indications that the security forces have recovered more than twice the published figure. Still, these could be less than two percent of the total number of illegal guns in the city.

The phenomenon raises oft-repeated questions: Where do illegal guns come from and what does government do with captured illegal guns? In the 2013 International Alert study (Out of the Shadows: Violent Conflict and the Real Economy in Mindanao), it is argued that the shadow economy in illicit guns is not completely outside the administrative and political reach of the state.

In the Ampatuan case, there were vintage rifles — remnants of the American colonial war in Mindanao and World War II — but at least 61 big guns and mortars originated from the AFP and PNP armory. The half-million round of ammunition were officially bought in cash. The seller had more difficulty in carrying the payment in a duffel bag than the buyer did in transporting the ammunition. An official Transport Permit was issued by the PNP to another PNP unit in Sulu, but the ammunition ended up in Sharif Aguak, the Ampatuan backyard that was once a decrepit village but now the provincial capital.

The President has expressed bewilderment about the seemingly endless supply of guns available to the Maute group, but some of the captured guns and ammunition bore markings traceable to the Government Arsenal in Bataan. The AFP vehemently denies having sold the weapons and ammunition to the enemy (PNA, June 8, 2017; Edge Davao, June 8, 2017). The PNP has established possible connections between the Mautes and gun running syndicates. Still, recent arrests and seizures of illegal guns and ammunition from suspected gun-running syndicates in Laguna and Batangas (The Philippine Star, July 5, 2017), and San Juan (UNTV News and Rescue, July 4, 2017) repeat the same story: stocks of ammunition traceable to the Government Arsenal in Bataan, high-powered firearms that should only be in the hands of the security forces, and alleged connections between illicit gun traders and some high officials of the police and military.

The Maute group and its allies certainly did not need to bring guns into Marawi. Lanao del Sur is awash with guns in the hands of communities, rebel groups, armed groups of political elites, and drug syndicates.

In 2010, five years before the Maute group became news, there were more than 114,000 illegal guns in the ARMM. Martial law in Maguindanao in 2009 did not collect all the Ampatuan guns. The peace processes with the MNLF and MILF did not reduce the guns in civilian hands. The NPA in Mindanao holds on to its guns (more so today with martial law and the suspension of the 5th round of talks). Moreover, around 1.7 million Filipinos are licensed gun holders, and, with the liberal new gun law, each could possess more than one gun. Nationwide, there is an estimated 3.9 million legal and illegal guns privately possessed by civilians, seven times more than the guns issued to law and defense forces combined (www.gunpolicy.org).

BENEFICIAL OUTCOME AMONG THE BAD
The gun-related threat to public safety and life that is present nationwide exploded several times over in the Marawi crisis. As of July 9, the death toll has risen to 507. Like any other, this war is disastrous.

Martial rule offers a purely military solution to problems of violence and threats against the state. There are Constitutional limits, but martial law brings in a unique, albeit costly, window of opportunity to siphon off illegal guns and reduce possibility of these being recycled within the shadow economy.

The Marcos martial law regime in the 1970s did siphon off half a million illegal guns from civilian hands, but there is no trace as to their whereabouts. When the ashes of martial law had settled, the baseline of registered guns in 1990 was at 458,364. After the first amnesty program was launched in 1993, 328,322 previously unregistered guns became legal. Since then, the shadow economy in illegal guns has boomed, allowing other actors to challenge the State’s legitimate monopoly of coercion, thereby putting public safety and security at risk.

At the least, the martial law regime in Mindanao should be able to not squander opportunities for peace and employ the military solution only to where it is needed. In a BusinessWorld article (“Our long hot summer of terror,” June 8, 2017), Francisco Lara, Jr. suggests targeted action against the trade in illegal guns. Government could demolish terror groups, private armed groups, and crime syndicates and completely eliminate their guns. Contextually, this means not losing the comprehensive approach to addressing conflicts and violence. At the first instance, it should continue the peace processes with the MILF, MNLF, and NDF so that it can focus on crime and ISIS-wannabes. The challenge is in ensuring that tactical moves of demolishing actual and potential enemies serve the strategic goal of building the state and protecting citizen’s welfare and security.

GETTING RID OF ILLEGAL GUNS
If government can afford to completely destroy captured shabu and pirated DVDs, it can also do so with captured guns. What it needs is a coordination mechanism by which all captured guns are turned-over to the PNP and for the PNP to have a budget and formulate a program for smelting captured guns.

Getting rid of illegal guns has the added benefit of getting rid of corruption and shadow bureaucracies in gun regulation. A methodical inventory of the more than 400 small arms and light weapons, grenades, and ammunition captured in Marawi will enlighten the public as to the source of this weaponry. Every ammunition has a head stamp. The International Ammunition Association has a code for every manufacturer and supplier of ammunition, whether government or public. The Government Arsenal in Bataan is the principal supplier of ammunition for the AFP and PNP and each piece of ammunition is marked RPA (Republic of the Philippines Arsenal).

The PNP FEO Firearms Information Management System (FIMS) has the database of legal gun holders and serial numbers and the PNP Directorate for Logistics and Logistics Support Services have 12 divisions that could easily validate inventory and movement of stocks. On the other hand, the AFP Procurement Service, Logistics Center and Quartermaster Services all have supply management systems and manual of procedures that should leave little room for misses in the inventory and movement of stocks.

The President has vowed to destroy illegal guns. The operating agencies should make it happen and obliterate the strings that bind regulators and enforcers to shadow economy actors.

Ed Quitoriano is a Consultant of International Alert Philippines.

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