MikeLigalig.com

By Jason Gutierrez | AFP News – 20 hours ago



AFP News/Jay Directo - A salesman at a weapons shop in Manila demonstrates how to use a conversion kit on a 9mm handgun on April 4, 2013. The proliferation of firearms in the Philippines has been in the spotlight following a series of shooting-related deaths.


Bespectacled and clean shaven, 37-year-old Jomari Paraas could pass for a typical office employee in the Philippines, except he has six guns in his backpack that he will soon sell.

The father-of-two is a prolific player in the country's enormous and lucrative weapons black market, which has been under scrutiny following a spate of high-profile massacres and shoot-outs this year.

"Why do I trade guns? Because there is a demand for it. And it's extra income," said Paraas, a former communist guerrilla whose day job as a community organiser for a non-government organisation is not enough to pay his bills.

Speaking to AFP in a crowded Manila slum where he was planning to sell the six guns, Paraas said he had been a firearms trader for more than a decade, starting in his late 20s when he quit the rebel movement.

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The proliferation of firearms in the Philippines has been in the spotlight since January, following a series of shooting-related deaths, including of two children hit by stray bullets on New Year's Eve.

A drugs-crazed gunman also killed seven people in a slum rampage, and a shoot-out linked to a gambling turf war left 13 dead, among them corrupt police and military officers.

The Philippines has a strong gun culture dating back centuries, with a history of armed struggle against Spanish and US colonial rulers.

Today, people typically carry guns because they lack confidence in the country's security forces to protect the public, according to security analysts and firearms traders.

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The gun culture can be unsettling, particularly for foreign visitors.

Private security guards with loaded, sawn-off shotguns infest the crime-plagued cities, protecting small and large private businesses.

Traffic wardens deputised by the police but with little security training stand at intersections with revolvers hanging off their hips.

Restaurants, nightclubs and banks often have signs asking patrons to leave their firearms at entrance counters.

Foreigners are warned by long-time expatriates to avoid any incident that could escalate into violence, because of the potential for a gun to be used on them.

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Quitoriano said many powerful figures, including soldiers, police and politicians, profited from the firearms trade, part of a huge corruption problem that plagues all sectors of society.

"Many of the unlicensed guns that leak into the grey market actually come from legal imports and government purchases," he said.

Quitoriano said the climate of fear fuelled the black market.

"If the public trusted the government more, there would be no need for them to protect themselves by arming," he said.

Alexander Reyes, who owns self-defence specialty shop Aquila Firearms and Ammunition Corp. at a Manila mall, agreed.

"It used to be for prestige, because guns equate with power," Reyes said. "But nowadays, it is mostly for protection. The police cannot protect you 24/7."

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here are hopes that mr money's son won't take some of those 20 guns one day and start shooting his schoolmates.

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