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Tuesday, November 08, 2005
102 unsolved killings give Cebu a bad name
By Allan I. Varquez
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
Vigilantes in Cebu City are getting bolder.
Their latest victim was a man who just walked out of detention after he was held for alleged drunkenness.
Antonio Medina, 25, was gunned down about five meters from the gate of the Mobile Patrol Group (MPG) on Arellano Blvd. Cebu City’s Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) team also holds office at the MPG.
His neighbor Leo Abayan, 47, who went to the police headquarters to fetch Medina, saw the attack.
They were at the roadside waiting for a Colon-bound jeepney. As they boarded the vehicle, two men appeared from behind them and shot Medina several times.
Medina is the 102nd victim of vigilante-style killing since Dec. 22 last year. He succumbed to eight gunshot wounds in the head and body.
All vigilante and vigilante-style killings in Cebu City have remained unsolved. The police earlier said no witnesses have come forward and they have no strong leads to pursue.
Mayor Tomas Osmeña earlier admitted that he is happy some of those killed were robbers.
However, Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal has denounced the murders. He even said that Cebuanos do not seem to value life as much as before.
Human rights groups and a multisectoral alliance led by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines have spoken out against the killings.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. has also asked the National Bureau of Investigation to look into the fatal shootings, which started after Mayor Osmeña announced he was forming an elite police team to go after suspected criminals.
The attack on Medina followed the fatal shooting of spouses Zacarias and Esterlita Flores and their driver as they got inside their vehicle on Magallanes St., Cebu City last Sunday night.
The shots that killed Medina could hardly be heard from a distance because the gunman attached a silencer to his pistol.
Some people from the MPG reportedly saw the culprits but did nothing to stop the gunman or arrest him and his companion. It even took the two men more than three minutes to flee on an XRM motorcycle.
“There were some policemen from inside (referring to MPG) who were in plainclothes but they did not do anything,” Abayan told Sun.Star Cebu in Cebuano.
He pushed Medina inside the jeepney as they got on the step-board when he noticed a man holding a gun behind them.
“He just shot Tony in the head. Tony fell off the jeepney unto the middle of the road. I wanted to help him but the gunman pointed the pistol at me and told me not get involved because they were only after Tony,” Abayan said.
Vice Mayor Michael Rama, in a mobile phone interview, said he will look into the circumstances of the killing to see if there was negligence on the part of the police.
But City Council police and fire committee chairman Procopio Fernandez said the shooting was an insult to the MPG because it happened right outside their headquarters.
Medina was arrested past 6 p.m. Sunday by the MPG team of PO2 Desiderio Alfeche in Sitio Kauswagan, Barangay Basak Pardo after his neighbor complained that he was drunk and was indiscriminately firing a handgun while challenging any member of the vigilante group.
Alfeche’s team, though, did not find any handgun so they detained Medina for drunkenness.
At 5 p.m. yesterday, the MPG freed Medina because no complaint was filed against him.
Abayan, who happened to visit him at the MPG headquarters on request of his wife, Susan, to bring him food, escorted him out the MPG headquarters.
Abayan said Medina was an ex-convict who was released from the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) after serving time for theft last August. Medina’s right arm had a tattoo “Romeo Flores.”
Homicide Investigator Zenaido Pastorfide said it could be a coincidence but he will check the connection between Zacarias Flores, who was gunned down last Sunday, and the Romeo Flores tattoo.
Eleven empty shells from a .45 pistol were found around Medina’s body that was sprawled in the middle of the lane of Arellano Blvd. going to Plaza Independencia.
The incident slowed down traffic for more than one hour.
Abayan said he saw the gunman and his companion walked to their motorcycle that was parked across the MPG gate.
The police only came out when the culprits were already far, he said.
(November 8, 2005 issue)
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