Report on Loose Firearms in Lanao del Sur: Guns Trivialized and Moros Stereotyped

Screengrab from Facebook page of Inquirer.

JEERS TO the Philippine Daily Inquirer for a story which confined gun proliferation to Moros and a headline which trivialized the serious issue.

The Inquirer published “Martial law disrupts Moro love affair with guns” on April 16, reporting on the disarmament campaign in several towns in Lanao del Sur. Martial Law was declared in the entire Mindanao following the siege of Marawi (Lanao del Sur) in May 2017. Congress extended the martial law until the end of 2018, responding to the request of President Rodrigo Duterte to “totally eradicate” Islamic State-inspired groups.

The lead read: “The love affair with guns by residents and officials of 10 towns in the province could be nearing its end as dozens of firearms, all unlicensed, had been turned over to an Army team that would pry the weapons forcibly out of their owners’ hands if these had not been surrendered.” The report cited locals who valued guns as heirloom, regarded these as status symbols and kept them for security purposes. The Army reported that 163 firearms have been turned over in 10 towns of Lanao del Sur while there were 338 in Maguindanao.

Maj. Gen. Roseller Murillo, commander of the Army’s 1^st Infantry Division, said: “The presence and ready availability of high powered firearms in the province contributed to the likelihood, intensity and duration of armed conflict in Lanao del Sur.”

The report creditably looks at a pressing issue, but the label “love affair” in headline and lead trivializes the reality of the country’s gun problem. News of the campaign to disarm these areas in Mindanao could have touched as well on  the links between endemic violence and the shadow economies including illicit arms.

Data from International Alert Philippines show that illicit firearms are one of the top specific causes of violent conflict incidents in ARMM from 2011 to 2016. The issue of gun proliferation is but of course indicative of the failure of the state to regulate arms and to stop its illegal sale.

The report also betrays its bias against Moros. Loose firearms is an issue not limited to Moros or unique to one area or another in this country. In 2010, the Zeñarosa commission, formed a year before to look into the existence of private army groups (PAGs), reported that PAGs operate in several provinces, some outside Mindanao, including those in Luzon, Abra, Nueva Ecija; in the Visayas, Masbate, Samar and Eastern Samar.

A 2013 column by Ed Quitariano, a risk and conflict analyst, cited police and army data on the distribution of firearms which showed the National Capital Region having the largest share of loose firearms in the country  (58%) compared to the rest of Luzon (15%), Visayas (8%) and Mindanao (19%) (“Illicit gun trade thriving in Philippines”).

One should hope that journalists could help break down ethnic biases and stereotypes, not color their stories with such tinted filters.

Twitter user @highreaching tagged CMFR regarding the Inquirer article.