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Thursday, October 06, 2005
Not just Tomas: ‘Erap, FPJ, Clint inspired vigilantes too’
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is “not in favor” of vigilante-style killings of criminals, but is “happy some of them are dead.”
He made the clarification yesterday after expressing his anger over an editorial of another local daily that he allegedly “continues to insist” on silencing criminals through summary execution, calling it “perfectly all right.”
“Don’t put words into my mouth. I never said that. I said I’m happy some robbers are dead. But does that mean (I meant) it’s perfectly all right? What I said is it’s not so bad. There is a difference between ‘not so bad’ and ‘perfectly all right’,” he said.
“I may have inspired some of them (vigilantes). But so did Erap, FPJ and Clint Eastwood,” he said.
He said he is glad “some” robbers are dead, meaning that their deaths have lessened the number of lawless elements in the city.
“I did not say it’s all right. But who is sad that Nodalo died? I’m not a hypocrite. I’ll say that I’m happy some of them (robbers) are dead,” Osmeña said, referring to slain robbery and illegal drugs suspect Joel Nodalo.
A man wearing a wig pumped 14 bullets into Nodalo while he was sitting on a bench beside his father inside a cockpit in Buenavista, Bohol last June.
The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7, meanwhile, is formally taking over the police’s investigation on the vigilante killings.
Lawyer Ernesto Maca-bare confirmed this in an interview yesterday. He said they will be requesting the police to turn over whatever data they have on the killings that have reached 94.
“We are optimistic that we will get the support of our professional counterparts within the police service,” Macabare, the bureau’s second-in-command, said.
The NBI 7 investigation is upon Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez’s directive to NBI Chief Reynaldo Wycoco in Manila last week.
Macabare, however, said they have not yet received Wycoco’s orders but the bureau just wants to make some preliminary steps so as not to get caught flatfooted when the order finally comes.
But this early, the NBI 7 is already stumped.
Silence
Most of the killings happened near the homes of the victims, but nobody has come forward with information to solve the cases.
“Do these slain people not have relatives? Do they not have any neighbors? Surely, somebody must have seen something,” Macabare said.
He brushed aside speculations that the police suppressed evidence because relatives could approach other agencies such as the NBI.
“We are calling on those who have information related to the deaths to share what they know,” the NBI official said.
The Cebu City Police Office has recorded 94 persons who were summarily executed since last Dec. 22, 2003.
The last person slain was Esteban “Waway” Yapi, who was gunned down last Saturday night by a lone masked man on Legaspi St., Cebu City.
Records at the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center show that Yapi was jailed six times for petty crimes.
Mayor Osmeña has welcomed Justice Secretary Gonzalez’s attention to the killings and his having asked the NBI to handle the investigation.
Osmeña, in earlier interviews, said that although he may have inspired the killings, they neither have his blessing nor was he supporting them.
He has earned criticisms from Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, but he countered the lawyers are just bitter because they now have fewer clients. (RHM/KNR)
(October 6, 2005 issue)
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