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Wednesday, May 17, 2006
Carvajal: It’s a “puzzlement!”
By Orlando P. Carvajal
The recent capture of suspected terrorists has brought to the forefront the issue of security for the December Summit. It has raised the question, would the local police be up to the job? Was the capture a fluke, a stroke of good luck? We hope it was not a fluke but there’s a “puzzlement” here somewhere that could make us... well, insecure.
Consider the vigilantes. They have killed more than a hundred people. They have established a modus operand. We also know the profile of this group’s prospective targets. Even if we assumed they are smarter than terrorists (which they are not) their serial killing has exposed them enough to the studious gaze (or is it?) of the police. Yet to date no vigilante has been caught, not even after a crime.
Unlike the vigilantes who, according to the grapevine, work for money, the terrorists are dedicated (misled but dedicated nevertheless) killers. For them it is not about the money. They are well-trained, well-equipped and part of an international network that has dared to successfully challenge first class police organizations in both Europe and the Americas.
Considering that our local police look ridiculously incompetent in catching a very straightforward group of killers as the vigilantes, how now can we expect them to catch terrorists before they strike? I am just very interested to know how Cebu City’s finest (they do call themselves that) presume to prevent terrorist attacks before, during or after the Summit.
Yet, if on the other hand the recent capture of suspected terrorists was no fluke and if the local police eventually proved themselves effective in preventing terrorists from creating havoc for the December Summit, then it would mean the issue with vigilantes is really not police incompetence. Otherwise, how can they be so good at something extremely difficult to do, like prevent terrorist crimes, yet so helpless at something relatively simpler like catching vigilantes?
It simply stymies me that they are so confident they can secure Metro Cebu from terrorist attacks when they have admitted so many times to their helplessness in catching vigilantes. I am glad, of course, to give them the benefit of the doubt that they can secure Metro Cebu for the Summit. I also do not mind the “puzzlement” for as long they prove effective in fighting terrorists who are capable of killing more people in one strike than vigilantes can hope in a lifetime.
Still, one cannot help wondering. As the public has suspected all along, it is probably not an issue of competence. In any case, to paraphrase what the King of Siam said to Anna, the vigilante issue in many ways remains a “puzzlement.”
For Bisaya stories from Cebu. Click here. (May 17, 2006 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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