THE GOVERNMENT should more strictly monitor gun ownership and review how the law is implemented in the country to curb gun-related killings, a congressman said Thursday.
The call was made by Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace S. Barbers as police presented to media the suspect who, in a fit of road rage, shot and killed a family driver in the EDSA tunnel in Makati City earlier this week.
“Gun ownership should be very well reviewed and must be strictly monitored,” the congressman said. “The state has the duty of protecting the people and strictly limiting gun ownership is a critical part of that responsibility.”
More than arresting the road rage killer, the Philippine National Police should investigate how he managed to acquire the firearm he used when rules in owning one are supposed to be stringent, said Mr. Barbers.
At the same time, the congressman called for the revival of the death penalty as the “country has become a breeding ground of criminals, terrorists, spies, [and] sleeper cells.”
The Philippines abolished the death penalty in 2006, replacing it with life imprisonment for capital and heinous crimes.
Calling the shooting incident a “senseless death,” he urged the government to reinstate the death penalty “as our system has gone berserk.”
“It is time we revive the death penalty and include more crimes to be punishable by death,” he said. — Kenneth Christiane L. Basilio
