Series of shootings/killings in Negros Oriental

For a while we thought covid-19 would kill more people than other ailments or reasons but the recent spate of shootings that are trending again is making us bite our nails on a daily basis. Shooting here and there on a daily basis---Sta. Catalina, Pamplona, Bayawan, Dumaguete---where next? Not one of the past shootings involving lawyers, broadcasters, or even ordinary people had been given justice. No arrest related to those numerous killings had been made.

People are worried and want some drastic action from the government but it seems like no progress has been done regarding the investigations that they are allegedly doing.

Any suggestions or solutions from this house? I think guns in this province are loosely circulating even among the most ordinary citizen. Why? Why does a man who is jobless and lives in a "barong-barong" or hut own a gun? A video of this type of person was shown online and he was having an argument with a neighbor and he started pulling a gun! How can he afford a gun?

I think our leaders must do something to control the possession and carrying of guns in public.

What do you think? Fire away. We need brilliant ideas that should hopefully reach the right people and put an end to the problem.

 

Catch the killers and that acts as a deterrent to others. If the general view is that such crimes can be committed with impunity then the killings will not stop (or reduce, as killings happen everywhere in the World). Do they have people capable of investigating serious crimes?

There are other factors, such as poverty and gun culture at work here but effective deterrence is the real solution IMHO ('H' = humble!).

 

We have investigators but how effective or serious are they is something else. I have noticed that they do try to do some sort of investigating after a crime but it just stops there. There seems to be a lot of dilly dallying and slackness in this area. Nothing concrete ever results from these crime probes in the Philippines.

 

I note in my home country that cases are reported on by the press, national and local, from the day of the incident to the time of sentencing - and if no-one is caught for a serious crime then the case is brought up again at times. Here there seems little reporting on the process concerning a serious crime - perhaps nothing to report on! - and that lack of scrutiny can be a reason for laxness. However, if a foreign alien (tautology intentional) merely raises his voice, it becomes national news - from time of incident to deportation. Your country needs to look inwards more for the source of its problems and its inadequacies instead of trying to scapegoat the rest of the World.

 

We are a country run by hoodlums, it seems.

 

Foreigners like me cannot own forearms here. Citizens can. A first thought I would think it would be safer for my family if laws were passed making firearm possession by citizens illegal as well.

But then I think, if you make them illegal, then only good law abiding citizens will turn in their weapons and not try to own any in the future. These are responsible citizens from whom we have nothing to fear.

Will criminals also obey the law and turn in their weapons and never seek to acquire them in the future? The people we actually need to be afraid of?

That is the problem I see with countries that outlaw firearm possession. Weapons are always available on black markets.

 

Sad to see a citizen saying that.

But, in my country I owned a shotgun - it was a semi-automatic and could fire 5 shots in quick succession. When a terrible shooting tragedy occurred at a school by a man using a shotgun, we were made to have our guns marked, registered and the number of 'shots' reduced (they changed mine from 5 cartridges to 4!). BUT only the law abiding handed theirs in - the crooks never did and they remained unmarked, unregistered and uncontrolled or traceable. That is another problem - asking crooks to follow the law!

 

You mean the pink riders of food panda didn’t stop the number of shootings in negros?! Insert gasp.

I do not think it is the poor man living in a hut who has access to these guns apparently circulating. The ordinary poor man barely has any money to feed himself much less buy a weapon. If the poor man has that weapon, it is likely because he is ex-military, ex-PNP, or a member of the NPA. These people have had practice and know how to use guns. Investigations are stalling because the police are mostly investigating their own people. Two known shootings in Negros were discovered to be done by the police. They were hired guns because you don’t hire people who have no clue how to use guns.