Election day 2013 proved to be business as usual for the criminals, insurgents, and warring clans, and political warlords. The total tally of violent crimes committed on election day itself was 27 incidents, 64 injuries, and 30 killed. Again, this disputes the COMELEC and PNP claim that there were allegedly only 7 deaths on election day.

This is for the election day itself only. In comparison, the total number of violent crime incidents during the entire election period now stands at 1861 incidents of which there were 961 injuries and 1458 killed from January to the present date.

Our PROGUN Crime Statistics ongoing tally may be viewed here: http://progun.ph/crime-statistics-2013

This week the Philippine National Police and Secretary Mar Roxas released their crime figures for this 2013 election period as allegedly having only 17 violent crime incidents during this Comelec Gun ban. PROGUN disputes this since in reality on the eve of the 2013 elections, we have tallied a total of 1688 violent crime incidents, of which 1317 people have been killed and 810 have been injured, thus far. These figures surpass the previous record of violent crime incidents during a Philippine election which was previously held by the elections of 2001 under Chairman Alfredo Benipayo. As compared to the same period of 2010, during the last presidential elections, violent crime rate has risen by eight times.

When public officials engage in intellectual dishonesty, and mislead the public, it is bad enough. However, deliberately misleading the public about the state of peace and order in our country, inculcates a false sense of security in the mind of the public that everything is in order and that our security is safe. This can have disastrous and deadly consequences, when as we are seeing now, that this false sense of secuirty mulls the public into complacency about personal security and safety, and over dependence upon the capabilities of the police who are incapable of protecting the public against this crime wave. The number of people killed and injured in the Philippines between January to May 2013 rivals that of Iraq and Afghanistan.

The Obama Administration today launched their #NowIsTheTime social media campaign. The idea is for supporters to 'carpet bomb' Twitter and Facebook with posts pushing for gun control.

Well, it seems to have backfired. Not too long after going live, the #NowIsTheTime hashtag on Twitter started showing more pro second-amendment tweets than those calling for gun control. Interestingly enough, the Twitter Top search, which tend to show Tweets from famous names and celebrities, are mostly in support of the Obama Administration. Obviously there is a disparity in views between the common person and the elite. It is a telling parallel with real life, where those who are more privileged tend to also support gun control.

Let's help out our pro-firearms colleagues in America. They are in the front line and whatever passes in the US will eventually affect us in the Philippines. It you have Twitter, post the hashtag #NowIsTheTime along with a pro gun message.

HBO's Vice news magazine show featured a story on firearms and political corruption in the Philippines. While this piece clearly offers an anti-gun perspective, it does draw attention to warlords and corrupt politicians as drivers of gun violence in the country.

The plain fact is that the Philippine 'gun problem' is inextricably linked to our nation's struggles with political corruption. No amount of crackdowns on legal civilian firearms ownership will have any effect because we are not the cause. This focus on restrictions for civilians is merely a sleight-of-hand, a tactic to draw attention away from those who are truly responsible. As our crime statistics show, the violence continues despite the gun ban. Ordinary civilians who follow the law suffer from greatly diminished security yet it's business as usual for the criminals and warlords.

We have now entered the election period when politicians make promises to tackle society's ills and turn things around for the better. Regardless of their claims, one thing is for sure: they won't solve problems by looking in the wrong direction.

PROGUN has now recorded 1210 violent crime incidents in which there were 610 injuries and 967 fatalities from the bginning of the COMELEC Gun ban from January 2013 up to the close of 31 March 2013. This figure is now equal to the number of violent incidents for the ENTIRE 5 month gun ban period of 2010. If this trend continues it will make this election period of 2013 one of the bloodiest election periods in Philippine History. The crime statistics can be viewed here: http://progun.ph/crime-statistics-2013

It has been reported in the mainstream news that 2,000 gun ban violators have allegedly been arrested. However, majority of these alleged gun ban ban violators are ordinary otherwise honest citizens, security guards and police and military personnel themselves, who simply seek to protect themselves or who have made an error of judgment. But it is clear that inspite of the enforcement of the comlec gun ban, IT HAS NOT HAD ANY EFFECT ON THE VIOLENT CRIME RATE, WHICH HAS IN FACT GONE UPWARDS TO ASTRONONMICAL PROPORTIONS.

We likewise note that Comelec personnel have armed themselves with submachine guns and pistols under the cloak of their gun ban exemptions granted by their own agency. Do they need such firepower, which serves merely to reinforce the notion that there still exists an armed threat in spite of the so-called gun ban?

Since January 2013, the Philippine national Police have been implementing OPLAN KATOK ("Operation Knock on your door") by going house-to-house and knocking on the doors of licensed gun owners "reminding" them to renew expired gun licenses.

Intimidation is the hallmark of a police state. We feel that the same effect could have been accomplished by merely sending notices by mail or printing announcements in the newspapers regarding the need tor renew gun licensed that have expired. Rather, going house-to-house is a form of intimidation to cower and harass licensed gun owners to renew their gun licenses - or else. A poll among Philippine gun owners by PROGUN last month shows that the vast majority of licensed gun owners who have been visited by the police feel deeply concerned that Oplan Katok is a practice run leading to eventual gun confiscation. We have long been warned by our brother gun owners of the United States that gun registration is the basis for confiscation. It happened in the Philippines in 1972 when martial law was declared. Today in 2013, in spite of the presidency of the son of the former nemesis of dictator Ferdinand Marcos, history, in the form of the 1972 gun confiscation, may repeat itself.

In the two weeks of the COMELEC Gun Ban 2013, we have recorded for this first month of January , 341 violent crime incidents in which there were 157 injuries and 313 fatalities, as of 31 January 2013. Among the violent crime incidents were spectacular robberies/ hold-ups in the heart of Metro Manila, high profile murders and assassinations of politicians and businessmen, courtroom murders and violence, and ambushes resulting in massacres of innocent civilians, police, and soldiers.

It is clear from these incidents that the COMELEC GUN BAN is an epic failure. As predicted beforehand, only the law abiding citizens and licensed gun owners are affected by the gun ban and are prevented by law from bringing their firearms outisde of residence. Sensing this disarmament, the criminals, assassins, warlords,  and robbers now know that the civilian population is now defenseless and have acted accordingly, and commenced with a massive crime wave of shootings, robberies, and murders.

CEBU CITY (Updated 10:05 a.m.) -- Two persons were killed while another was wounded in a gun attack inside the Palace of Justice in Cebu City Tuesday morning, a radio report said.

Victims Dr. Rene Rafols and his lawyer Julian Atias were shot dead by a certain John H. Pope, a retired Canadian journalist, as the Municipal Trial Court in Cities branch 6 was about the start his inquest for six counts of malicious mischief.

The report said Dr. Rafols was the complainant in the case.