Camp Crame joins UN campaign vs ‘small arms’

About 300 rifles and handguns were destroyed in Camp Crame as the Philippines joined the United Nations (UN)-sponsored international observance of the Small Arms Destruction Day yesterday.

The day also formally marked the opening of the "UN Conference on Illicit Trade in Small Arms and Light Weapons in all its aspects," in New York City.

World-wide, other UN-member countries held simultaneous destruction of small weapons in a campaign to bring to international recognition the problem of firearms proliferation.

Ambassador Rosalinda Tirona of the Department of Foreign Affairs, led members of the Diplomatic Corps and officials of the interior and defense departments in the symbolic burning of the small firearms at the Philippine National Police (PNP) parade grounds.

Tirona said the observance of Small Arms Destruction Day is part of the Philippines’ commitment to the UN campaign to stop illicit trade in small firearms and light weapons.

These weapons become the main instruments of death in regional and armed conflicts around the world, the US said.

Hundreds of confiscated pistols, revolvers, shotguns, sub-machineguns and assault rifles and were piled, doused with gasoline, and incinerated in a huge metal vat.

Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Eduardo Soliman, Defense Undersecretary Edgardo Batenga and PNP chief Director General Leandro Mendoza joined Tirona and representatives from the defense department, the Diplomatic Corps and NGOs in igniting the bonfire.

The weapons include those captured by the PNP and AFP during clashes with local insurgents and secessionist groups, as well as those recovered from criminal elements, and gun law violators.

According to Senior Superintendent Ernesto Belen, chief of the PNP Firearms and Explosives Division, the PNP has in its custody some 14,000 confiscated guns that are ‘unserviceable’ and can be destroyed. – Christina Mendez