Spurred by two recent deadly school shootings, Assistant Majority Leader Rep. Javier Miguel L. Benitez (Neg. Occ., 3rd District) filed the Final Firearms Amnesty and Loose Firearms Accountability Act of 2026 on Wednesday, August 19, seeking to make major loose firearm offenses non-bailable and establish “the most stringent gun accountability measures in the history of the Philippines”.
The proposed legislation comes in the direct wake of severe gun violence targeting students across the country.
On June 22, two teenagers opened fire inside San Jose National High School in Tacloban City, killing three students and wounding 20 others. Less than two months later, on August 18, a Grade 9 student armed with a pistol and a rifle killed a schoolmate and took his own life at the Ateneo de Zamboanga University Junior High School. In both incidents, the weapons were traced directly to adults, including a police officer’s service pistol and a revolver registered to a private security agency, Benitez noted.
Benitez emphasized the urgent necessity of overhauling the current legal framework, stating, “Our schools should be the safest rooms in the Republic. In 57 days, two of them became crime scenes. In Tacloban City, the guns that killed three children came from the adults around them, and the strongest charge we could file against the firearm keeper was malversation. That is not justice. This bill fixes the law that failed those families.”
The measure responds directly to an appeal from Interior and Local Government Secretary Jonvic Remulla, who urged Congress on August 19 to strengthen existing firearm laws based on police data showing that 98 percent of gun crimes in the Philippines are committed using loose firearms, he said.
Estimates from the Philippine National Police indicate that approximately 1.7 million loose firearms are currently circulating nationwide, with over 700,000 existing registrations lapsed, compared to 4.12 million registered weapons.
Amending Republic Act Number 10591, known as the Comprehensive Firearms and Ammunition Regulation Act, and repealing Republic Act Number 8294 alongside inconsistent provisions of Presidential Decree Number 1866, the bill introduces a final, non-extendible 120-day amnesty window for holders of unregistered weapons, after which an unprecedented enforcement regime begins.
Under the proposed bill, non-bailable penalties carrying reclusion perpetua will apply when evidence of guilt is strong for using a loose firearm in a crime resulting in death or serious physical injury, engaging in firearm trafficking, carrying or discharging a loose firearm within a gun-free school zone, or selling or delivering a firearm to a minor or disqualified person.
The bill establishes a gun-free school zone covering school grounds, buildings, and the area within a 50-meter perimeter. Exceptions within this zone are restricted to law enforcement officers in actual performance of duty, school security guards operating under an approved duty detail order, and licensed firearms transported unloaded in locked containers without stopping.
The bill also ends the legal doctrine that absorbs unlawful firearm possession into the primary crime committed, making possession of a loose firearm a separate, distinct offense charged on its own, while classifying the use of a loose firearm as a special aggravating circumstance that cannot be offset by any mitigating circumstance.
Safe storage is established as a mandatory legal duty, holding gun owners criminally liable with penalties up to reclusion temporal if negligence allows access that leads to a fatality. Privately made firearms, including 3D-printed gun parts, digital blueprint files, and unfinished receivers, are brought under strict serialization and registration mandates.
During the single 120-day amnesty window, delinquency fees and surcharges are waived, registration fees are reduced or made free for indigent applicants, and the Philippine National Police must set up one-stop centers in every provincial capital and highly urbanized city while deploying mobile processing teams to rural, upland, and agricultural areas.
Simplified procedures will also be made available for heirloom weapons and firearms of cultural or customary significance. Ballistic test-firing and screening against national databases of crime, stolen, and government firearms are mandatory, and any database match results in an immediate denial of amnesty.
Benitez said that while the national government has declared at least 13 firearm amnesties since 1980, all fell short because forgiveness was never paired with permanent consequences. Addressing both law-abiding citizens and illegal gun owners.
“To the more than one million licensed and responsible gun owners of this country, you are not the problem, and this bill says so. To everyone holding a loose firearm, this is your last open door. Walk through it, because after 120 days, the gate locks and enforcement begins in full. Amnesty first, accountability forever after. Amligan ta ang aton mga kabataan. Let us protect our children”, he said.
The measure will be referred to the House Committee on Public Order and Safety for further deliberation.
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