ARM SMUGGLING
Smuggling
- also known as trafficking, is the clandestine transportation of goods or
persons past a point where prohibited, such as out of a building, into a prison, or
across an international border, in violation of the law or other rules
WHAT ARE FIREARMS?
- includes handguns, revolvers, pistols, rifles, muskets, carbines, shotguns,
cannons and all other deadly weapons from which a bullet, ball, shot, shall or
other missile may be discharged by means of gunpowder or other explosives
- also includes air rifles and air pistols not classified as toys under the
provisions of Executive Order No. 712 dated 28 July 1981. The barrel of any firearm
shall be considered a complete firearm.
FIREARMS TRAFFICKING
- refers to the act of any person who, through the use of any fraudulent
machinations, shall import or bring into, or export from, the Philippines, or
assist in so doing, any firearm or parts thereof, explosive or ammunition or
machine, implements, equipments or tools for the manufacture of firearms.
- shall likewise refer to the act of any person who, contrary to law, shall:
- receive, conceal, buy, sell, or in any manner facilitate the transportation,
concealment or sale of said firearms or parts thereof, explosive or ammunition or
machine, implements, equipments or tools for the manufacture of firearms,
ammunition or explosives after importation, knowing the same to have been imported
contrary to law.
Why does this illicit activity flourish?
- It is a dangerous but profitable criminal enterprise.
- However, it threatens not only public safety and national security but also
endangers, and oftentimes, takes away the lives of innocent persons.
- It is one of the transnational organized crimes that affect not only the
Philippines and other neighboring Asian countries but also the rest of the world.
- The country lacks anti-firearms smuggling/trafficking laws.
- No region is immune to illicit trade and trafficking in small arms and light
weapons
- Collaborative and cooperative measures are essential to address this
transnational threat.
Why should it be addressed?
- It poses a serious threat to national security and a stumbling block to
economic development.
- Firearms can be tools of violence. Letting the control of the tools of
violence get out of hand can be a disaster for
any society.
Efforts to curtail the problem
- Improvement of the traceability of firearms;
- Passage of relevant laws and providing stiffer penalties thereto;
- Encouraging return of loose firearms through programs such as amnesty and
�balik-baril� programs; and
- More extensive law enforcement.
RELEVANT LAWS
- The Memorandum for the SILG recommending the phase-out of the use,
manufacture or sale of Paltik (home-made) Firearms; and
- The PNP Circular on the disposition of Captured, Confiscated, Surrendered and
Deposited Firearms, Ammunition and Explosives.
BASIC FIREARMS LAWS, RULES AND REGULATIONS:
Section 1, Republic Act No. 8294:
Acts punishable: Unlawful Manufacture, Sale, Acquisition, Disposition or Possession
of Firearms Ammunition or Instruments Used or Intended to be Used in the
Manufacture of Firearms or Ammunitions.
Penalty:Prision correccional in its maximum period and a fine of not less that
Fifteen Thousand pesos(P15,000.00)
(low-powered firearm such as rim fire handgun, .380 or .32 and other firearm
of similar firepower, part of firearm, ammunition or machinery, tool or instrument
used or intended to be used in the manufacture of any firearm or ammunition:
Provided that no other crime was committed)
Section 1, Republic Act No. 8294:
- Acts punishable: Unlawful Manufacture, Sale, Acquisition, Disposition or
Possession of Firearms Ammunition or Instruments Used or Intended to be Used in the
Manufacture of Firearms or Ammunitions.
- Penalty:Prision mayor in its minimum period and a fine of Thirty Thousand
pesos (30,000.00)
- (high-powered firearm which includes those with bores bigger in diameter that
.38 caliber and 9 millimeter such as caliber 40, 41, 44, 45 and also lesser
calibered firearms but considered powerful such as caliber 357 and caliber .22
center fire magnum and other firearms with firing capability of full automatic and
by burst of two or three: Provided however, That no other crime was committed by
the person arrested)
INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY THEFT
Intellectual property theft is used interchangeably with intellectual property
piracy which is the unauthorized copying of goods, or works such as software, for
resale by way of profit or trade; the production and sale by way of trade of copies
of goods which have been made without the authority of the owner of the
intellectual property; the facilitation of their production, and the distribution
of such goods including importation and retailing;
counterfeiting or pirating of goods facilitated by use of the Internet or satellite
technologies, or piracy or theft of information or broadcasts, or unauthorized
photocopying of books for education purposes, or of unauthorized end-user piracy of
software beyond the purchaser�s license, or piracy of domain names or company
names, or counterfeiting of currency; the unauthorized manufacture and distribution
of copies of such goods and works which are intended to appear to be so similar to
the original as to be passed off as genuine examples. This includes use of famous
brands on clothing not manufactured by or on behalf of the owner of the trade mark,
and exact copies of CDs containing any material or software, which are traded in a
form intended to be indistinguishable to ordinary consumers from the genuine
product. Intellectual property right is �the legal ownership by a person or
business of a copyright, design, and patent, trade mark attached to a particular
product or process which protects the owner against unauthorized copying or
imitation. Such property rights are an important element of product differentiation
and confer temporary monopoly advantages to suppliers� (Pass, Lowes and Davies
1993: 265). The term intellectual property rights include copyright and related
rights, trademarks and service marks, geographic indications, industrial designs,
patents, layout-designs.
Four categories of intellectual property according to Nicole Leeper Piquero
- Patents
- Trademarks
- Trade secrets
- Copyright
Republic Act No. 8293
- approved on June 6, 1997
- This Act shall take effect on 1 January 1998.
- Intellectual Property Code of the Philippines.
RA 10088
- known as the "Anti-Camcording Act of 2010
- Approved on May 13, 2010
DRUG TRAFFICKING
The Drug Trade
From the farmers to the producers, the smugglers, the street dealers, and the
users, the drug trade is deeply rooted in the global economy. It is protected and
overseen by powerful groups known as drug cartels that make huge profits from this
multibillion-dollar industry.
What is drug trafficking?
- another term for dug trade
- refers to the illegal process through which narcotics and other
illegal drugs are produced, transported, and sold.
- the illegal cultivation, culture, delivery, administration, dispensation,
manufacture, sale, trading, transportation, distribution, importation, exportation
and possession of any dangerous drug and/or controlled precursor and essential
chemical.
- generally refers to the sale and distribution of illegal drugs
R.A. 6425 � Dangerous Drug Act of 1972 was repealed by,
R.A. 9165 � Comprehensive Dangerous Drug Act of 2002.
ENVIRONMENTAL CRIME
Environmental crime
- the deliberate evasion of environmental laws and regulations by individuals
and companies in the pursuit of �personal interest and benefit.� Where these
activities involve movements across national boundaries, or impacts upon the world
as a whole, they can be termed "international environmental crime�
The most common types of environmental crime fall under these major categories:
(1) biodiversity;
(2) natural resources-related crime;
(3) wastes;
(4) banned substances;
(5) other environmental offences like biopiracy and transport of controlled
biological or genetically modified material; Illegal dumping of oil and other
wastes in oceans; violations of potential trade restrictions under the 1998
Rotterdam Convention on the Prior Informed Consent Procedure for Certain Hazardous
Chemicals and Pesticides in International Trade; Trade in chemicals in
contravention to the 2001 Stockholm; Convention on Persistent Organic Pollutants;
and fuel smuggling to avoid taxes or future controls on carbon emissions.
ECONOMIC CRIME
Economic Crime
- referred to as commercial crimes and known also as �white collar� crimes
- any act characterized by fraud, concealment, or a violation of trust and are
not dependent upon the application or threat of physical force or violence
PIRACY AND ARMED ROBBERY AGAINST SHIPS
Sea Piracy is described as
(1) an act of any person who, on the high seas, shall attack or seize a vessel or,
not being a member of its complement, nor a passenger, shall seize the whole or
part of the cargo of said vessel, its equipment, or personal belonging of its
complement or passengers;
(2) any attack upon or seizure of any vessel, or the taking away of the whole or
part thereof, or its cargo, equipment, or the personal belongings of its complement
or passengers, irrespective of the value thereof, by means of violence against or
intimidation of persons or force upon things committed by any person, including a
passenger or member or complement of said vessel, in Philippine waters, and
(3) any person who knowingly and in any manner aids or protects pirates, such as
giving them information about the movements of the police or other peace officers
of the government, or acquires or receives property taken by such pirates, or any
person who abets the commission of the piracy.
The definition of piracy is contained in article 101 of the 1982 United Nations
Conventions on the Sea (UNCLOS)
� Piracy consist of any of the following acts:
a. any illegal acts of violence or detention, or any act of depredation, committed
for private ends by the crew or the passengers of a private ship or a private
aircraft and directed:
a.1 on the high seas, against another ship or aircraft, or against persons or
property on board of such ship or aircraft.
a.2 against a ship, aircraft, person or property in a place outside the
jurisdiction of any State.
b. Any act of voluntary participation in the operation of a ship or an aircraft
with knowledge of facts making it a pirate ship or aicraft;
c. Any act inciting or of intentionally facilitating an act describe in sub-
paragraph (a) or (b)
SMUGGLING OF CULTURAL PROPERTIES
Smuggling of Cultural Property refers to the act of any person who, through the use
of any fraudulent machinations, shall import or bring into, or export from,
transfer from, the Philippines, or assist in so doing, any cultural properties.
Cultural properties are old buildings, monuments, shrines, documents, and objects
which may be classified as antiques, relics, or artifacts, landmarks,
anthropological and historical sites, and specimens of natural history which are of
cultural, historical, anthropological or scientific value and significance to the
nation; such as physical, anthropological, archaeological and ethnographic
materials, meteorites and tektites;
historical objects and manuscripts; household and agricultural implements;
decorative articles or personal adornment; works of art such as paintings,
sculptures, carvings, jewelry, music, architecture, sketches, drawings, or
illustrations in part or in whole; works of industrial and commercial art such as
furniture, pottery, ceramics, wrought iron, gold, bronze, silver, wood or other
heraldic items, metals, coins, medals, badges, insignias, coat of arms, crests,
flags, arms and armor, vehicles or ships or boats in part or in whole.
