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Tuesday, January 20, 2004
Danao's gunmakers seek government aid
By Oscar C. Pineda
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
GUNMAKERS make up the image of Danao City, a 34-kilometer ride north of Cebu City.
“We are used to it (the image) already,” said Roland Perez, Danao City human resource management officer.
But gun-making is not listed in the city's resource profile, as shown by Lourdes Rivera of the city planning.
The resource profile showed only three industrial establishments in the city, of which only two are in operation. These are Cebu Mitsumi Inc. and Durano III and Sons Co. Lloyds Richfield Industrial Corp., a cement factory, already stopped its operations two years ago, said Rivera.
Cebu Mitsumi in Barangay Sabang is an electronic spare parts manufacturing firm that employs more than 15,000 workers from the city and surrounding areas. Durano III and Sons is a sugar milling company in Barangay Dunggo-an.
Perez admitted gun-making is one of the people’s main livelihood.
But for lack of money and special equipment, Danao gun-makers are still far from being world class.
Local government helped legalize the industry. The Workers League of Danao- Multipurpose Cooperative (World-MPC) acquired its license to manufacture guns in 1996.
That year, then congressman Ramon “Nito” Durano III extended P1 million in aid to World-MPC and Danao Arms Manufacturing Corp. (Damancor), two legitimate gun manufacturers then. Damancor has since ceased operation.
Rep. Joseph “Ace” Durano (Cebu, fifth district), Nito’s son, has given P500,000 to World-MPC as part of the Lingap sa Mahihirap program.
The city’s gun-making industry has gained popularity nationwide.
Perez said that whenever Danao hosts Lakbay Aral visitors, most of the delegates visit a gun-making factory.
Nestor Sabayton, chairman of World-MPC, wants the government to help them market and patronize their products instead of buying from gun stores here and dealers abroad, which is more expensive.
Since World-MPC is licensed only to manufacture guns, it is limited to selling their products to gun dealers and gun stores.
Even then, it can only serve small orders. The company recently turned down an Indonesian firm who wanted to buy 4,000 guns a month because each World-MPC worker can only produce four guns a month.
Illegal gunmakers copy US-made guns they call “origs" while legal gunmakers aim for quality.
Illegal gunmakers have perfected their craft such that one can no longer distinguish a paltik (homemade) from a US-made.
In fact, some military and PNP personnel pair their issued firearms with paltik guns, so that when it’s time to return the government guns, they surrender the paltik and keep the orig.
Gunmakers are particular about the materials they use.
“We need a type of metal solely for guns,” said the illegal manufacturer, who asked not to be named.
At present they use a hard steel commonly called “asab.” The more technical Sabayton calls the material Asab 41-40.
Asab is readily available in hardware stores in Cebu City as it is used in making spare parts.
But Asab is not as strong as the metals used in making foreign-made guns.
Proof of this is the difference in barrel thickness. Paltik guns have thicker barrels to compensate for the weakness of the material.
“We believe that foreign countries are not willing to sell us this special metal because they are afraid that we might develop better guns than theirs,” the illegal manufacturer said.
But Sabayton believes illegal manufacturers are not yet ready for harder steel because their equipment are not suited for such kind of material.
Sabayton admitted they need to improve the quality of their products. He is counting on the government for help. They already have gun prototypes but lack special metal and machines.
Prototype
Examples of these prototypes are an assault 5.56 rifle, which combines features of M16 and AK47; a carbine version of the same assault rifle; a multi-caliber revolver that can switch caliber in less than 25 seconds without the aid of tools; a 9 mm sub-machinegun with fire selector on the trigger; a .45 pistol with only 35 parts; and a seven-shooter gun disguised as cane.
(January 20, 2004 issue)
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