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Thursday, February 01, 2007
Mayor calls poll gun ban 'stupid'
By Antonio M. Ajero
DAVAO CITY -- The election ban on firearms, especially the way it is being enforced, is stupid, said Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte, who called its implementers "ugok" (dumbbells).
The mayor's biting comment was among the statements he made in a speech before officers and members of the Davao City Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Inc. during its 39th induction rites last Friday.
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He said the Commission on Elections (Comelec), which is enforcing the gun ban, should be mindful of the realities on the ground, especially involving law enforcers like policemen.
He said police officers are on duty 24 hours a day, but the Comelec requires them to get a waiver or exemption from the ban so that they would be allowed to bring guns outside their official time of work.
The mayor said that aside from being clearly unrealistic, it is not practical for the Comelec to require the requesting parties to still get clearance "from the idiots in Manila."
"A requesting party like Manny Pacquiao might be able to get the clearance for 20 guns immediately, but experience tells us that it would take Comelec months to issue the permit to ordinary police officers, usually when the election is already over," Duterte said.
The mayor, however, admitted that government is very powerful nowadays saying any incumbent public official like him can be made the object of trumped up charges and get suspended right away.
In the same gathering, Duterte also expressed the need for senior politicians like him and majority leader Prospero C. Nograles to be replaced by young blood.
He also touched briefly on moves by some community leaders and political allies to groom his daughter, lawyer Sara Z. Duterte, to be his successor by making her his running mate in the May elections.
Duterte reiterated his all-out support for the multi-awarded business chamber, as he frowned upon published attempts of the Manila-based Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry to organize a rival chamber of commerce.
He said PCCI's move, if successful, will create chaos and will be disastrous to business in the city. (Sun.Star Davao/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Dumaguete. (February 1, 2007 issue)
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