Depending on their license, most owners could possess up to 15 handguns, rifles and shotguns (collectors are allowed more than 15). Licensed gun owners had to be 21 years old and take a firearm safety seminar, among other requirements. But in 2000, President Joseph Estrada lifted these limits and allowed citizens to possess as many guns as they wanted, of any type and caliber.Ī 2013 law set down qualifications for owning guns and carrying them in public. After Ferdinand Marcos declared martial law in 1972, owners were limited to one low-powered rifle and a pistol or revolver-and both had to be licensed. colonized the Philippines in the early 1900s, private citizens were allowed to own high-powered guns for “lawful purposes” and hunting.
While the right to bear arms isn’t enshrined in the nation’s constitution, as it is in the United States, there is no denying the Philippine love of guns. Rouelle Umali/Xinhua via Getty Gun culture in the Philippines “When I was jailed, our entire clan felt humiliated.” “It reflects on you, and reflects on your family,” Narag says. Avoidance of hiyâ, and sparing one’s family and community from it, is often described as a core Philippine value. Philippine academic Raymund Narag, a criminology associate professor at Southern Illinois University and a former prisoner himself, says mass shootings in his native country are in part deterred by hiyâ, a Tagalog word meaning shame or embarrassment. “I think our authorities and the public safety practitioners are just waiting for that time to happen, considering that Philippine culture is greatly influenced by the West, particularly the United States.”įor now, though, powerful social factors continue to have a restraining effect on indiscriminate violence. “I think it’s just a matter of time,” says Gerry Caño, Dean of the School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Cagayan de Oro College. Shootings not related to politics or crime are uncommon-and there has been nothing as extreme as Columbine, Sandy Hook, or Uvalde. One of the country’s worst killings, the 2009 Maguindanao massacre of 58 people, took place during a gubernatorial election. is four.)įrom the Archives: Inside Rodrigo Duterte’s Drug WarĮlections can be particularly bloody times, with lethal attacks on poll officers and political rivals. (In 2020, the comparable figure for the U.S. This meant guns killed one in every 100,000 people in the Southeast Asian country-one of the highest rates in Asia. The country saw over 1,200 intentional killings using firearms in 2019. In fact, the Philippines is one of the deadliest places in Asia when it comes to firearm homicides. Hitmen can be hired for as little as $300. To be clear, homicides involving firearms are a fact of life in the Philippines.
When eight people died and 11 were injured after a drunk gunman began firing wildly in the southern province of Cavite back in 2013, the tragedy was notable for its sheer rarity.
No consensus has been reached in the Philippines over what sets a mass shooting apart from other gun deaths, but indiscriminate slayings are uncommon.