Tougher law sought vs careless gun owners

MANILA, Philippines — Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla on Wednesday urged Congress to repeal a 1997 law to make careless gun owners more accountable, in the wake of the Aug. 18 school shooting incident in Zamboanga City.

It was the second deadly campus attack in the country in less than two months involving a student who was able to access and use a licensed firearm belonging to a member of his family.

In a press conference in Camp Crame, Remulla said owners of firearms used in shootings should be held liable for the “nonsafekeeping of their weapons,” noting that the guns used in the incidents — including the first in Tacloban City on June 22 that killed three students — were government-issued.

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On Tuesday, a 14-year-old Grade 8 student (Grade 9 in the earlier police report) allegedly killed a 15-year-old Grade 10 student at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University Junior High School before turning the gun on himself.

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“We went through the numbers: 98 percent of gun crimes are committed with loose firearms. The Robin Padilla law, which extinguished culpability and made it a bailable offense, has led to a surge in crimes precisely because loose firearms is a bailable offense,” he said. “What I am asking Congress to do is to repeal [the law] and make [possession of] loose firearms a nonbailable charge again.”

Also known as the “Robin Padilla law,” Republic Act No. 8294 was passed in 1997 and amended the martial law-era Presidential Decree No. 1866 on illegal possession of firearms by reducing penalties for the crime and making it a bailable offense, among others.

READ: Padilla backs ‘Robin Padilla Law’ repeal, floats martial law

Padilla, a movie actor-turned-senator, was then serving his sentence at New Bilibid Prison following his conviction for illegal possession of firearms when the law was enacted. The lower penalty was applied to his case and made him eligible for executive clemency. President Fidel Ramos later granted him conditional pardon in April 1998.

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“I call upon Congress to enact laws that will penalize gun owners for the nonsafekeeping of their weapons. In the two school shooting incidents, both firearms were government-issued to qualified personnel, but they did not take care of the guns in both instances,” Remulla said.

“The penalty for using legal guns, if a minor took them from their parent or guardian, is only [the same for] reckless imprudence. There is no penalty for the gun owner, while the minor who used the gun is treated as a juvenile. Isn’t the owner of the gun equally responsible?” he added.

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Remulla’s proposal may find a parallel in the case of a father in Georgia in the United States who was found guilty in March and later sentenced to 15 years in prison for giving his then 14-year-old son a gun that was used in a deadly school shooting in September 2024.

It was the first time that a US court convicted a parent of second-degree murder for providing their child a weapon used in a mass shooting. Previous convictions were for involuntary manslaughter.

Relieved from post

At the same briefing, Philippine National Police chief Gen. Jose Melencio Nartatez Jr. said the Zamboanga shooter allegedly wielded a .40-caliber pistol and a 9mm pistol, both of which belonged to his father, a Bureau of Customs (BOC) employee.

READ: Ateneo de Zamboanga shooting: 2 students dead

BOC Commissioner Ariel Nepomuceno earlier told reporters that the shooter’s father, who was a district commander of the local port’s police, had been relieved from his post pending an investigation.

He confirmed that one of the two pistols was issued by the BOC while the other was the father’s personal firearm.

“The guns were in his car, I understand. That was a dangerous place,” Nepomuceno told reporters in a phone interview.

“But it was his driver who brought his son to school. He wasn’t there. The guns were in his vehicle. So the child had access,” he said.

In the Tacloban school shooting, one of the guns used by one of the two male minors involved allegedly belonged to his aunt, a police officer.

In the Zamboanga case, Nartatez said police investigators recovered the .40 caliber pistol on the school’s fourth floor and the 9mm pistol on the fifth floor.

Also recovered were two deformed fired bullets from the .40 caliber; four fired cartridges matching the 9mm pistol; three fired cartridges matching the .40 caliber pistol; five live rounds of ammunition for the .40 caliber; two live rounds for the 9mm pistol; the shooter’s cell phone; and a black headgear.

2.78M firearms

Remulla said there are now approximately 2.78 million licensed firearms in the country, of which 2 million are in the hands of private individuals while more than 780,000 are issued to law enforcers.

“Gun ownership is a privilege accorded to those who need to protect themselves, but that privilege carries with it not only the responsibility of ownership but the responsibility of safekeeping. One cannot exist without the other,” he said.

Remulla also called on Congress to “control and curb the use of first-person shooter games that influence these young minds.”

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“Australia is a great model; it bans minors from social media. It’s time we took a look at a [similar law]. I am not saying that it is an absolute solution. It’s not one-size-fits-all for this kind of problem … It is a community effort,” he said. /mcm /atm