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In insisting that they be included in the gun ban exemption, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Cebu chapter noted that like judges, they face safety threats due to their handling of controversial cases.
While safety is a paramount concern, so is the capacity of law enforcers to regulate or even clamp down on gun use. But Cebu lawyers, while admitting that the climate for lawyers in the province is peaceful compared to other parts of the country, can always refer to incidents like last year's ambush of assistant prosecutor Patrick Osorio as basis for their petition.
The IBP perhaps can take a lesson or two from the ongoing investigation by Washington DC authorities on the gun possession incident involving Washington Wizards player Gilbert Arenas.
Arenas was accused of brandishing unloaded high powered firearms in front of fellow player Javaris Crittenton reportedly to threaten him following a fallout between the two men over a gambling debt.
While Arenas tried to make light of the threat, even joking about it on Twitter, the National Basketball Association (NBA) wasn't amused and suspended him indefinitely pending results of an FBI investigation into the incident.
The gun possession charges stemmed from the strict gun control laws in Washington DC, most of which draw from the so-called Brady Law named after the press secretary Jim Brady who was injured during a failed assassination attempt on the late president Ronald Reagan.
Gun control, while not alien to the Philippine Constitution, has been implemented piecemeal at best since powerful politicians and warlords found numerous loopholes through which they managed to acquire high powered firearms for themselves and for their bodyguards.
The Ampatuan massacre is just one more proof of the government's failure to implement strict gun control laws. Now with lawyers calling on the Commission on Elections (Comelec) for gun ban exemption, it just makes it that much harder for authorities to maintain peace and order in an already volatile election period.
Cebu as well as the rest of the country isn't like, say Texas, where the crime rate is low despite little or no gun control laws. The National Rifle Association (NRA) saying that ?guns don't kill people, people do? is superfluous at best when it comes to the Philippine setting.
Again, it is up to the Comelec, the PNP and the other law enforcement authorities to impose selective gun ban exemption. But if possible, lawyers and others wishing to gain exemption need not burden further the government and instead implement their own precautions, using vigilance and professional conduct in their work.
