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Thursday, February 02, 2006
Seares: 'No witness, no case'
By Pachico A. Seares
News Sense
The police use the excuse. So does the NBI. No witness, no case.
In explaining why not a single murder case of the more than 100 summary killings in Cebu City has been solved, police chief Melvin Gayotin says they cannot find witnesses.
The NBI is only a grade better. NBI chief Medardo de Lemos says they have autopsy reports, shells, slugs, but "not one credible witness."
It is the job of the police and the NBI to get witnesses. Witnesses are not coming out to testify because they fear for their lives, suspecting it is the police who protect or handle the serial killers.
These crimes involve a lot of people or few people with a lot of work: surveillance, funding, transport, weapons, killers, fundraisers, directors (the gods who decide who will die), coverup.
This is a conspiracy, spanning several months and exacting more than a hundred victims.
Copout, excuse
There are other devices: the technical component de Lemos talks about, money trail, sources of vehicles, entrapment by watching probable next targets. Intelligence work, honest-to-goodness sleuthing.
"No witness, no case" is surrender and copout.
One shudders at what this means: Vigilantes and copycats continuing the murder spree. Innocent bystanders being maimed or killed and counted as collateral damage.
And a public rejecting the value of human life and embracing the culture of death.
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (February 2, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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