i feel we cover this region better than anyone else would be for the steady tendency to believe but together because you have a lot of people that are divided on political issues we are we the people we live to tell the real stories are just mended used to deliver in-depth journalism we don't feel in favor to the audience across the globe. hello and welcome to rewind. today we're rewinding back to 2014 in the philippines the country was experiencing a spike in gun violence at the time and the government's response was to introduce new restrictions on the purchase and possession of firearms had been

a fierce backlash from the gun owners community which was insisting on the right of self-defense against escalating criminality against this background algeria $100.00 series and steve chow who investigate the black market in gangs in the philippines to find out whether the new laws were making any difference here is the film stray bullets. every 9 minutes someone in the philippines makes a deal to buy a gun. according to police statistics within half an hour of that purchase. a crime is committed. when someone has murders. in the philippines the murder rate per capita involving firearms is 3 times higher than the united states and steve charland this episode a one on one east we look at a new law the government says to put in. if so critics ask why haven't the killing

stopped. on any given weekend across the philippines you'll find shooting ranges packed with gun lovers through makeshift mazes they battled to win the weekend's title of the fastest draw. the almost religious devotion to shooting in this nation reflects a deeply imbedded gun culture. and while the right to bear arms is an inch trying the constitution like in the united states many here believe it should be gun ownership is a civil right. this is ernesto. the face of the pro-gun lobby we believe that we should have our freedom to own and process where our maybe so but others have suffered on the other end of the gun. from the moment she was born

stephanie nicole was the life of her family. she'd been hit by a stray bullet after someone fired into the air to celebrate the new year. stephanie's bright light when. her father jay remains devastated he spends hours a week by her grave. maybe comes to live with us things live. those memories but memories always come octal me. and what also remains is the pain of not knowing who is responsible for firing the gun that night. police have yet to make an arrest over skipper alive in my heart. and always remembering those things that makes me smile even though. most of the still no justice for her. the public outcry over stephany's death among dozens of others forced the

government in may of 2013 to ribeiro how it regulates guns. this is louis oberst the chief of the police firearms division he takes us through a newly renovated offers that will for the 1st time in the philippines register gun owners by computer. till now the record keeping has been done by hand because of this opus believes 70 percent of all gun registrations to date were faked making it almost impossible for police to track down owners of guns used in crimes on my 2nd day here in my office i kick up 16 people. 16 people yes the straight talking chief of firearms was only recently brought in task of cleaning up a department long accused of taking bribes and reselling guns seized from crimes of the black market we are now trying to introduce technology because when you

introduce technology you could lessen corruption. his other task is to put into practice the new gun law that includes much higher fees for gun ownership and more stringent drug and psychiatric tests of those who want to own them. i believe that everyone should have a firearm. in this country it is not a right to have a gun it is a privilege given to an individual to have this. we go looking for a gun shop to find out how this new law is affecting business with at least one in every major mall in the philippines they're easy to find. the display case of this store shows off a variety for sale this one has a laser sight from high powered handguns. to semiautomatic rifles that.

the gun industry pumps $60000000.00 a year into the economy how have gun sales been recently since the law was announced has it been yeah hasn't affected how much the owner emits sales are down. 50 percent that much. but that sort of talk has the pro-gun community up in arms. well you just took the rights of latest gun owners. you're not solving the problem of criminality of the philippines because these are not the people who were committing the crime. if the new gun controls have any chance of succeeding opus agrees police will have to clear the streets of illegal firearms especially in the country's many slums. we've come to tondo in manila it's the most congested shanty town in the world where people get by on a few cents

a day by recycling garbage. tondo is also one of the most dangerous places in the country gangs have carved out their own territories and shootings happen daily but we've arranged to meet members of a group known as the temple street gang they control some of the streets and here the interesting part is that they don't consider themselves criminals but our form of neighborhood watch we navigate deep into the narrow warrens of tondo places where police rarely go to find the group and its leaders. for them i'm steve this is the same as mr. jesse a bello is one of the enforcers for the temple street. game. idea and he he tells me he runs 20 men here they're mostly boards. so just you say this whole area is yours. he shows off his package. started on the streets of l.a. the t.s.t. created a philippines chapter sometime in the 1980 s.

. now they're battling rival gangs to see who will. jesse says he became a member of t.s.t. when he was 16 he's now 21 warning that i'm no longer really when i joined a gang i felt a sense of so. you have your group of friends who are traveling and it's a real fellowship you can count on. a fellowship he believes has kept him alive in what is a perilous place for young men. a few weeks earlier local news channel's headline a shootout between 2 rival groups in the area the back and forth battle was captured on security cameras. the group would say of t.s.t. was involved but jesse shows us all bullet wounds from past fights. so you're shot here and i can see the boy in there exactly how he got them he won't say this here only came out. came out here sized. during a fight or what happened that. i was just accused of something and things just

happen. then one of the gang returns with something to show us it's a handgun and that. this is the gun. it's an old one but we're told it's been used to kill at least 2 people why do you need a gun why do you guys need guns also are your enemies also have guns your enemies also have guns so you need guns to protect yourself. despite the tough talk jesse admits the fighting the shootings the killings have taken their toll. in the beginning i said to myself i wouldn't do certain things that i joined again just for the friendships. but i feel since lost my we lose the i'm the one looking for trouble. that guns are needed to survive here is something we hear again at our next stop in toronto. were met by orphans their thieves talk to steal guns by one

of the areas dealers. inside we need dealer who will call george. he shows us some of his current stock. up until a year ago george was a painter then he lost his job and says he had no choice but to get into guns. he says he makes twice as much now. do you ever feel. knowing you're selling weapons. you know when. it's up to the boys. maybe it's for their protection. i don't care where or how the music they bought the thing is i sold a gun. and george has sold many of them more than $100.00 over the past year. he does so he says not only to feed the orphans but

also just for his own 5 children one who sick in hospital. even though i knew i could because i can and the team from. one of my children is ill i need money for medicine and for the surgeries that's why i don't really care about the punishment it's nothing for me. as for the new law george says the poor can't afford the high fees to register guns besides he says people have little faith in police little it's impossible for this law to how many police actually look of the civilians. all cops are criminals in this neighborhood if someone really wants to kill the police car and would protect you. do you reckon superintendent that one of the weaknesses traditionally for the philippine national police is enforcement yes i agree with you how do you overcome.

this problem the philippine national police trying to change but we cannot change overnight it will take. our best and we have agreed and we have admitted that there were 4. i'm not trying to call it. but in tondo change is not happening fast enough we come across a way it's for. a man who sold mangoes in the slum he was known as a tender gentle man still he was shot and killed. if you start to look kids continue to play basketball nir barkat. with so many deaths here another just doesn't mean that much. his wife louisa and brother are left agree by themselves police have no suspects and luis has left to wonder why he was killed

but did not hear me not enough. i don't know why he was shot he didn't wrong anyone he was just making a living. he didn't have enemies unlike others i've heard of. lisa hasn't heard of the new gun law and says she's rarely ever seen police patrol here. all she can think about now is how to earn enough to survive. in a quiet moment she admits to being afraid. she's scared the killer will come after her next scared because she has nowhere to go. virtually everywhere we turn in toronto we find victims of gun violence and little evidence of police action just stopping. the meter nice to meet you when we meet lolita she's mourning the loss of her grandson he was shot and killed a few weeks earlier she says by neighborhood dogs. i told police many times that

these boys with threatening to kill him but they just told me to call them when they're there. when i did and by the time they got here it was too late leader says rebel you know aged 17 had been bullied for years by the game they stole from him attacked him and then finally one night they shot him. he survived a few days in hospital but the wounds were too serious. i miss him so much. so that. he was my only helper but when i was sick he was the one who smoked fish. he helped others to never caused a problem which is why those bullies picked on what others had. in this small cramped room lalita cares for 4 other grandchildren the gang knows she told police about them and she now worries for their lives. being here my next oldest grandson is 14 years old and they've said they'll get him next i'm very uneasy now i haven't

recovered and now they want my other grandson. i think this describes of community breeds more. norman has been lobbying for years for a total ban on guns among civilians he says the high crime in the philippines makes it necessary for such extreme measures besides he argues many other countries have such bans since we are in a pricing is i think there is a need for such harsh measures to be put in place. cabrera says the new gun law is a farce and imposes no limit on how many guns a person can own in peace obvious that this kind of policy is a policy that advances the interests of the politicians and gun traders and gun dealers. no one. i think.

the briere up points to the laws biggest supporter. the philippines president the new aquino is an average shooter and gun collector he owns 18 firearms and is known to be against a total ban on guns. he's been quoted as saying. firing guns relieve the stress if you get in there you know you're right all of the 000 believes if they leave ok you will over we go to an awards ceremony which the president is attending to speak to him about better gun controls. for 2 months we've been requesting an interview with him but i've received no reply. after learning what we want to ask aquino about i have a press pass yeah i know but he said if you can ask his aides doris from joining his press conference if you're not willing to speak about gun laws. is it too sensitive a question for him as other media crews with approved questions are allowed through

. the president's security detail blocks our way as our producer and cameraman try to get into the present moment. but are told us that she will present her actions young age e.g. lady said. by the time we make it to the lobby the media scrums over and he's left. president aquino's press staff knew the question we wanted to ask if they were intent on stopping us or asking here it shows how sensitive this issue is and how sensitive this issue here's the president aquino. to investigate claims that some philippine authorities are actively supporting be illegal gun trade we head for the nelsons of the now in the philippine island of subaru. it was here 600 years ago the spanish conquistadores 1st colonized the philippines and some argue started the gun culture

. centuries later and local gunsmiths still ply their trade here albeit secretly. we leave the band to go on for it. there have been a number of police raids here over the past few months and while there are literally dozens of conspiracies hills most people are wary about speaking with us going to their willing up this trail. to go and. we'll call these 2 men june and edberg about their brothers and their. long time gun spirits they show us how they make their firearms starting from basic scrap pieces of metal. their tools are simple and from the sawing to the drilling we can see nothing is measure it's all done by instinct. what they are exact about is where their profession stands in the eyes of the law it's illegal. illegal

great say but that's not about to stop them. to stay never really if i am not going to work with this. they put together their latest handgun. and show me an array of others that are ready for market called for yeah you know that again the gun brands are faked it says made in usa made and that it's made into now. and you tell me if i had a legal gun you could make me a copy with the same serial numbers so i have 2 guns one legal when you go. and what are you know and the one and if you have written of the why here matters. tells us his guns sell for as little as 50 us dollars together with his brother they make about 50 a year with so many workshops in these hills that means thousands of new illegal guns enter the market from there now every year and you know adds even with the new

gun law there's no shortage of buyers who are your customers. a lot of people wonder why this level politicians. police where the police and military by your illegal guns. and the politicians yes you can and can and again. they come to order in. the morning. papa says police are working to crack down on the sale of illegal firearms he gives us one of the 1st glimpses for media of the vault where seized guns are stored these are all 'd the regular firearms there are thousands confiscate their cup your sword and the boss of abundant 4 feet the fire opus replace the old cop responsible for guarding it with a new officer admitting firearms have in the past mysteriously disappeared from the

shelves he now plans to digitally catalog each and every one to be eventually destroyed you look at issues of this country faces corruption. police force a lack of trust in the police force a lot of loose firearms problems seem overwhelming how convinced are you that this god will succeed. i can feel what you feel. but people in this country who want to want to have a quick fix solution. you really have to apply coordinate force. then knew the scene the effects. could not all have the luxury of time especially the victims of gun crime leaders spends her days begging politicians and police to protect her surviving grandchildren. but her appeals she says have been met with few offers of support. and so she's left alone

to deal with the threats. worrying all the time who will be the next to be killed in a place where guns still rule the day. stray bullets since that film 1st add gun violence has raged on per. didn't it levels in the philippines all in the name of the war on drugs since his election president roderigo details launched a crackdown on drug pushers and users has been accused of ordering or encouraging thousands of extrajudicial killings by police and security forces even suggested gun owning filipinos take the law into their own hands a move critics say is just giving official sanction to vigilantes recently steve shall return to manila for rewind to see what's changed in stray bullets was 1st broadcast and president to tell came to power. when we go to terra to a says he is trying to clean up streets by waging

a war on crime and drugs how has that impacted gun violence we've had so many incidents now probably with 3000 people being killed most of them killed by firearms and what we're really seeing is really justice being dispensed from the barrel of a gun over the country have been transformed into a police state and every day you open the newspapers you look at the news and all you see are people being killed but the president says that these are necessary steps to bring safety to the country i don't agree with. will in the end lead to more chaos and anarchy in my view because you see the philippines has a weak legal system so we have very low conviction rates. police work that's being done this in many cases very shoddy our courts are congested this and lots of delay

and that's why people are so fed up with. crime and drugs and corruption but if the problem is a weekly go system then thinking about going through your own hands it's just going to make that system weaker and the weaker it gets the more it there will be a need to maintain order and that order will only come from and the fight it out in form of government.

tween. girls is going to. just close to. one of these travels to the villages where parents still live under rights to the specifics tunnels of the. al-jazeera. after. they join one of the wilds most notorious ahmed groups. but found a way out rebuilt their lives and now help by that it's. a tale of

course recruitment child soldiers and have referred to exploitation of women daughters of alice a bad part of the radicalized it seems on al-jazeera. or

. this is 0. hello i'm convinced this is the news hour live from doha coming up in the next 60 minutes. major clashes in the lebanese capital security forces fired tear gas at defiant protesters who say they're tired of waiting for change. peace talks are set to begin and then libya's oil and currencies take a hit as a result of the conflict.