Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla wants the Philippine National Police to have the power to inspect licensed gun owners’ homes without a warrant to ensure their firearms are properly secured, and plans to file a Supreme Court petition to make this legal.
In a press briefing, Remulla said the police need this power following the third school shooting incident this year that involved a licensed firearm that the shooter took from a relative.
The suspect in the latest school shooting in South Cotabato allegedly used a firearm belonging to his father, a Department of Education employee. Three were killed, including the gunman, and eight were injured.
Remulla noted that the Supreme Court had struck down as unconstitutional the provision in the implementing rules and regulation of the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act that required house inspections as a requirement for obtaining a license to own and possess firearm.
He said he would seek the filing of a Supreme Court petition “to make it legal for the PNP to inspect the homes of legal firearms users to make sure that [the firearms] are kept properly.”
He would work with the Department of Justice on crafting the petition, he added.
“There has to be a right for the state to inspect the gun owners’ premises kung tama ang storage nila ng baril,” he said.
He said owning a firearm in the Philippines is a privilege, not a right enshrined in the Constitution.
“That privilege has to come with responsibility and that responsibility has to come with accountability, especially with the PNP. We should have the power to inspect without warrant all gun owners and how they store their guns,” he said.
Remulla also once more pressed for tougher laws on negligent gun owners.
He said that under present laws, they could only be held liable for reckless imprudence. But he said they should be as liable as the child if their gun was used in committing an offense.
“Responsibility has to end and stop with the gun owner,” he said.