Under the Gun

The presence of guns in the Philippines is impossible to ignore. Ubiquitous signs in airports, government offices, bars, discotheques or movie theaters request that people check their firearms before entering. According the some estimates more than half a million illegal firearms are in circulation. I know, the situation seems to be better than some 10 years back but if you open the newspapers you always find a number of people being killed. I am not talking about the sad story of journalists being killed (the Philippines comes second after Iraq since 2002) but about all these neighbor and traffic disputes which often end up in using guns as the ultimate answer.

Photo from Malate in July 2007.