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Saturday, November 12, 2005
Editorials: Cebu solons shouldn’t squirm
That some people are asking why it has taken a non-Cebuano legislator to raise in Congress the issue on the spate of vigilante-style killings in Cebu City is not surprising.
The killings started in December last year yet, and the number of those felled has reached 103 as of November 10 this year.
Meanwhile, many sectors have come out to condemn it, including the Cebu archdiocese, through Ricardo Cardinal Vidal, the Cebu City chapter of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, militant groups and even a big chunk of the local media.
With the smell of gunpowder, the blood spilt and the noise, it is therefore amazing how Cebu City congressmen could keep their peace.
There should be no reason then for them to squirm now that Rep. Loreta Ann Rosales of the party-list group Akbayan has taken up the cudgels for those opposed to the existence of vigilantism in Cebu City.
Besides, Rosales not only chairs the House committee on human rights but also takes care of a constituency that includes the chapter of Akbayan in Cebu.
Indeed, one of the reasons why the so-called vigilantes have become bolder despite some sectors’ condemnation of their acts is that government officials in Cebu are either giving their implicit support to them or are looking the other way.
A really forceful push is needed to make those behind the vigilante-style killings listen to the howl of protests, and if that
comes from somebody who is not even a resident of Cebu City, so be it.
Probe needed, not a lecture
Senior Supt. Augusto Marquez Jr., chief of the Regional Intelligence and Investigation Division, may have meant well in lecturing Acting Cebu City Police Office Chief Melvin Gayotin on how to solve the spate of vigilante-style killings in his area.
But with the mind-boggling failure of Cebu City policemen to solve even just one of the 103 deaths attributed to the vigilantes so far, the act looks more like an attempt to wake up somebody who is already wide awake.
As Cebuanos say, “Lisod pukawon ang tawo nga nagmata na.”
Of course, Gayotin and company do not lack training in conducting proper investigations on murder cases, it’s just that, for one reason or another, they are not putting their minds into the task.
What the Police Regional Office 7 should do then is to look deeper into the inaction and impose sanctions if necessary.
(November 12, 2005 issue)
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