President Rodrigo Duterte announced in mid-June that he’s got a plan to reduce gang and drug related crime by arming local community leaders.
These leaders, knowns as “Barangay Captains” have been unwilling to report gang and drug related crime in the past, because they were afraid of violent repercussions from the very gangs and drug dealers they were reporting.
After consulting with Police and his intelligence agencies, Duerte announced that he was considering the bold move of providing community leaders with guns from the state.
There are 42,000 Barangay Captains who would be eligible for the free or private purchase subsidized guns, according to Martin Dino, the Interior Department Secretary who is responsible for the Barangays.
Dino said: “The condition is that the barangay captain should fight drugs and crime. If he is conniving with criminals, he could be the one shot.”
President Duterte said in early June that barangays would be treated like soldiers or police, and “will never go to jail” if they shot suspected criminals while doing their duty.
The plan to arm civilians is supported by the association of barangay officials, according to its president, Edmund Abesamis.
Now as Americans, it’s difficult to imagine a nation where the police can execute you summarily and without charges, but we can sure see the reality that when the bad guys have guns and the good guys don’t, the good guys fall silent.
The solution to this problem is instead of arming community leaders, arm the entire population!
If you look at other nations with a very high rate of armed citizenry, you typically see a very low rate of gang and drug related crime.
That also solves the problem of, “What happens when these Barangay’s go bad, and decide they want to play both sides?”
Now you’ve armed your own enemy and created distrust in the government.
We’re happy to see that President Duterte sees that guns aren’t the problem, but part of the solution.
We only hope that his people enjoy the freedom to own guns, and not just the Barangays.