SENATOR Grace Poe, reacting to a suggested solution to arm government prosecutors following the killing of some in their league, said Sunday she condemned the slaying but had reservation on arming them.
Earlier, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said he would ask for funding for firearms for government prosecutors, nine of whom have been killed since President Rodrigo Duterte came into office.
The killings include the killing of Ombudsman assistant special prosecutor Madonna Joy Tanyag, who was stabbed this week in a suspected robbery incident.
But Poe stressed she had always maintained that increasing the capabilities of the country’s law enforcement institutions in terms of detection, investigation and prosecution remained to be the better option in addressing the rising criminality.
“We cannot possibly propose to arm every sector that has become the target of criminals as our way forward,” she added.
Senator Aquilino Pimentel III has also misgivings on arming government lawyers as he told guns-for-hire and swindlers to be afraid of the law.
He warned guns-for-hire that the law would easily catch them if they commited a crime.
He noted that the government could help the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation if they needed more training and equipment.
Instead if giving firearms to these kawyers, he said the government should increase their capabilities. Hd said this should be a better solution.
