Deadly and insulting

This is an issue that needs harping on, and we intend to do so. That no one has been arrested among the eight men shown in a video firing guns indiscriminately on New Year’s Eve is frustrating at the very least—and seems to indicate that the case will come up against the proverbial “blank wall.”

This is a case of abject stupidity, or life-threatening apathy. In either case, there is ground to condemn. As the New Year’s Eve revelry ended, the Philippine National Police announced that, despite its best efforts, more than 60 incidents of indiscriminate firing of guns had been recorded, resulting in more than 40 casualties, including an 11-year-old girl in the Cordillera who was killed.

Video and images from a Facebook account that went viral showed just how indiscriminate. In the video, several men take turns firing a .45 cal. pistol into the air, complete with yelps and loud laughter. The edited footage shows them gleefully firing six rounds upward. Persons off screen are heard chiding the shooters in the two instances that the gun jammed; the shooters simply raise the gun and fire again, this time successfully.

There is an eerie casualness in the still photos, in which the frames of men posing with guns are mixed with what seem to be happy family photos, complete with women and children. In another posted image, one man is posed as if he’s about to fire an M-16 assault rifle into the air. In another, four men are photographed with another holding yet another rifle, while two others point their guns at the camera, seemingly inebriated. In the last photo, one man holds up a plastic dipper more than halfway filled with bullets. He is smiling. “Happy New Year,” the post reads. “Welcome 2015.” The photos are time-stamped: January 1, 2015, 2:54 a.m.

The video and images were uploaded on Facebook by one of the shooters. Philip Andrew Funtanilla apparently posted them under the account name “Drew Lutchina.” He and seven others have been identified in reports as the men in the images. The others are: Cezar Lutchina Funtanilla, Mark R-Jay Cabana, Jumar Cabreros, Ian Christopher Calixterio, Russel Funtanilla, Mark Cachola and Geronimo Gomez. All are from Barangay San Antonio in Narvacan, Ilocos Sur, where the firing took place.

Outraged netizens quickly saved and forwarded the video and images. The original account was quickly deactivated, but it was too late; in that act of arrogance and ignorance, the men appeared to have shot themselves in the foot.

The PNP has since raided the house of two of the eight men, father and son Cezar and Philip Funtanilla, but no firearms were found. According to the PNP, none of the eight men is licensed to hold any weapon. Thus, they are in clear violation of Republic Act No. 10591 or the New Gun Control Act. Chief Supt. Wilben Mayor, PNP spokesperson, has been reported as saying that “appropriate charges are being prepared against them.” So far, however, the men have only been charged with alarm and scandal—a minor crime with the pitiful maximum penalty of imprisonment of one day to one month and a laughable fine of P200. That’s the prescribed penalty under the current Revised Penal Code for the illegal discharge of firearms.

Let’s belabor the “mad tradition” that is not only deadly but also infuriating and insulting to thinking men and women. Let’s denounce the ignorance of the gunmen (among whom, reportedly, is a son of a policeman). The police and the military need to do a far better job in cracking down on both the rogue shootings and the proliferation of “loose” or unregistered firearms. Furthermore, the penalty against the act of firing a weapon indiscriminately (not including illegal possession of firearms) needs to be strengthened. Otherwise, as the PNP’s Mayor has pointed out, “the law will not have any effect on the offender.”

Imagine for a moment where all those stray bullets from the guns fired by those braggarts landed. Perhaps they actually believed they were above the law. Law enforcers need to disabuse them of the notion. They can’t be allowed to get away.