Bespectacled and clean shaven, 37-year-old Jomari Paraas could pass for a typical office employee, except he has six guns in his backpack that he will soon sell.
The father-of-two is a prolific player in the country's enormous and lucrative weapons black market, which has been under scrutiny following a spate of high-profile massacres and shoot-outs this year.
"Why do I trade guns? Because there is a demand for it. And it's extra income," said Paraas, a former communist guerrilla whose day job as a community organizer for a non-government organization is not enough to pay his bills.
Speaking to AFP in a crowded Manila slum where he was planning to sell the six guns, Paraas said he had been a firearms trader for more than a decade, starting in his late 20s when he quit the rebel movement.
Paraas is a made up name for security reasons, but his real identity has been vetted by a Filipino expert on security issues who advises local law enforcement officials on the gun trade.
Paraas started selling used guns and knock-offs of foreign brands made by illegal gunsmiths in the central and southern Philippines, before moving to more expensive weapons smuggled from abroad.
The American-made .22 calibre Magnum Black Widow revolvers in his bag were ordered by a buyer through a shadowy network of small-time gun runners who take advantage of the city's urban squalor to peddle their deadly wares.
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