THE Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) on Wednesday, August 19, 2026, urged Congress to review the country’s firearms laws and impose stricter penalties on gun owners whose firearms are used in crimes.
In a press conference, DILG Secretary Jonvic Remulla also called on Congress to make possession of loose firearms a non-bailable offense again, saying 98% of gun-related crimes involve unlicensed firearms.
“I call upon Congress to make laws that make it once again non-bailable, that makes it once again preventable,” Remulla said.
“I ask Congress to help us, join us, help us fight criminality, and impose laws that will make a difference,” he added.
Remulla said stricter laws are needed to promote responsible gun handling and safekeeping, whether by law enforcement personnel or private gun owners.
He made the call following Tuesday’s shooting at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University campus in Zamboanga City that left two students dead, including the minor suspected shooter. Authorities said the firearm used in the attack belonged to the suspect’s father, a customs official.
The incident came nearly two months after a shooting at San Jose National High School in Tacloban City on June 22 that killed three students and injured 20 others. The two suspects, aged 14 and 15, were also students at the school.
In Tacloban, one of the firearms used by the suspects was a service firearm belonging to the policewoman aunt of one of the minors, while the other was a .38-caliber revolver registered to a security agency in Cebu.
“The penalty for the use of legally owned guns when a child simply takes the firearm from a parent or guardian is only reckless imprudence. There is no penalty for the owner of the firearm, while the child who fired the gun is treated only as a juvenile. Isn’t the owner of the gun equally responsible?” Remulla asked in Tagalog.
“What is really frustrating for me is that the responsibility of the gun owners does not match the crime that occurred. The gun owner should be equally responsible. Again, I want to work with Congress to put an end to this, to give the law teeth when it comes to legal and, especially, illegal firearms,” he said.
Remulla also called for a review of law enforcement agencies’ policies and the retraining of personnel on the proper safekeeping of firearms.
He said there are more than 2.7 million registered firearms in the country, with more than 700,000 belonging to law enforcement agencies, including the Philippine National Police, Armed Forces of the Philippines, Philippine Coast Guard and National Bureau of Investigation.
“All gun owners, whether uniformed or private, should face penalties if someone else uses their firearm and kills someone. It should not be treated as simply as a car being involved in an accident. A life is at stake here. So there should be accessory penalties if someone else uses their firearm,” Remulla said.
Despite the two school shootings, Remulla maintained that gun violence in the country remains relatively uncommon.
“This is a country where there are a lot of guns, but gun violence itself is not rampant. These are the few tragedies that are,” he said. (TPM/SunStar Philippines)