1 million guns in PhilippinesMANILA - OVER ONE million unlicensed firearms are in the hands of civilians and rebels in the Philippines, leading to a high incidence of gun-related homicides, the national police chief said on Monday.
The Philippines is ranked 10th in the world in gun related homicides, Philippine National Police Director General Jesus Versoza said at a gun control conference in Manila, quoting a list by the World Health Organisation and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime.
Versoza said nearly all homicides in the country between 2004 and 2008 were carried out with the use of unlicensed firearms.
'The control of firearms remains the most critical and one of the greatest obstacles or barriers in our fight against criminality and lawlessness,' Versoza said. 'What is alarming is that from 2004 to 2008, the statistics show that 97.7 percent of all gun-related crimes (in the Philippines) were committed using these loose firearms.'
Versoza said the conference was aimed at devising effective gun control laws in a country where many insurgent groups have been known to control huge arms caches in their fight against the government.
He said illicit firearms were being distributed among organisations including 'the NPA, MILF renegade groups and the Abu Sayyaf group' on top of those held by organised crime gangs.
The NPA or New People's Army (NPA) is the armed unit of the Communist Party of the Philippines, which has waged a Maoist rebellion since 1969 while the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) has been fighting a separatist rebellion since 1978.
The Abu Sayyaf is an Al Qaeda-linked group of self-styled Islamic militants blamed for the country's worst terrorist attacks. -- AFP
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