City execs back arming of mountain brgy chiefs

For the first time since the controversial declaration last weekend, two top officials in the city council expressed support over the move of Mayor Tomas Osmeña to distribute M16 rifles to barangay captains in the city's mountain barangays.

Vice Mayor Michael Rama said it seems that Osmeña has "no choice", but to augment the city's police capability considering that the city only has less than 1,000 policemen, a number falling short of the ideal 1,500 that the city needs to protect the current population.

Like Osmeña, Rama compared the current situation to that in the 1960s wherein 1,000 policemen were deployed in the city.

With the number, Rama said he arrived at a ratio of 1:3 on a barangay and the number of policemen when he tried to compute the number of policemen that could be detailed in the city's 80 barangays in a shifting pattern.

Meanwhile, councilor Edgardo Labella, head of the council's committee on laws, said the Local Government Code does not prevent the barangay chiefs to carry firearms as long as the same is subject to regulation.

Labella said people should take the situation as a preventive measure, of being proactive rather than being reactive especially that the Association of Southeast Nations Summit is barely a few months away. He, however, emphasized that the firearm should not be for use by anyone else aside from the barangay captain to whom license for use would be given.

Both Rama and Labella agree that seminars and continuous monitoring are necessary once the firearms would be distributed.

During the general assembly of the Association of Barangay Councils last Saturday, Osmeña announced he would be distributing M16 rifles to the mountain barangays. The decision to arm the barangay chiefs was arrived at following their persistent requests for the detail of policemen in their barangays.

The rationale behind the move is that since it will take some time for the police to get to the mountain barangays when needed, the barangay captains will have to take up the slack.

The city has appropriated P2 million to buy brand new M16 rifles for the police and the existing rifles will be refurbished and given to the captains.

A major concern raised was on the possible abuse of the firearm, but Osmeña had said there is no need to worry because no abuse of firearm by barangay chiefs has actually been reported for the past years.

City Hall has earlier issued 9mm and .45 caliber pistols to almost all barangay captains in the city including those in the mountain barangays and the good news, Osmeña says, is that no abuse of the firearms has been committed.

Not all barangay captains will be issued rifles, but only those who comply with requirements and pass proficiency tests. The barangay captains would also be subjected to psychiatric evaluation and drug testing. - Joeberth M. Ocao