Ban the Kap‘s gun

Governor Amado Espino Jr. was busy, busy, busy last Thursday giving out gifts. There were spanking new buses to stimulate local tourism and tilapia fingerlings for fish farmers to boost the aquaculture industry.

And then there were those shotguns — which cost our provincial coffers at least P30 million! — for the barangay Kapitans, ostensibly to help them keep peace and order in their turfs. This must be a first in the Philippines. Imagine, an entire province of gun-totting Kaps! This is definitely not going to go down in the books as one of those best-practices initiatives nor a pioneering step that should be duplicated elsewhere. In fact, it is a move that seriously needs re-thinking and reconsideration by our governor who has so far shown a pretty impressive performance in steering the province.

The idea of Kaps carrying guns is shocking enough, but what is more frightening is that these community leaders are being armed legally and with nothing but a haphazard training on how to use the weapon. The possibilities for misuse and abuse are endless. What will stop them from adding more to their arsenal after this license?

It is a limp justification that the barangay chairmen have been complaining to the governor’s brother, Board Member Amadeo Espino (who initiated the shotgun idea), that they are unable to effectively guard and patrol their communities with mere sticks. But how many barangay captains or tanods were reported to have been wounded or killed by suspected criminals while on patrol? One? Two? Hardly a justification to arm all of them. The fact is, there is none.

A more effective way for the Kaps to maintain peace in the barangay is to make their constituents more aware about security habits and the need for reporting of presence of suspicious-looking strangers in their sitios, not arming the barangay Kap who will think that governing through the barrel of the gun is the way to do it.

Worse, the provincial PNP is now given additional administrative task of monitoring the status of those 1,333 shotguns twice a month and holding shooting training sessions for the barangay chairmen. All those man-hours and energy are better spent actually fighting crime and solving pending cases.

It would not do the provincial PNP command much good really wasting precious time checking on the Kaps.

As for the Kaps, they – and their communities – would be much better off focusing on expanding and honing their minds and skills on administrative work and good governance.

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