Tuesday, July 29, 2008 Editorials: Cebu’s ‘chop-chop’ case
IT’S not that incidents as heinous as killers chopping up the body of their victims happen only in other cultures or countries; a Tagalog film about a “chop-cop” lady was based on a real life case in Luzon.
One can say, though, that either a “chop-chop” incident did not happen in Cebu until the previous weekend or at best it happens here only in a span of decades, if it was already committed in the past.
Bodies are also not chopped up solely out of rage, the usual motivation, or to spark public uproar and make the criminal popular, a bizarre purpose of an insane mind.
Cebu version
While there is reason to think that Richard Gudelosao, Jojo de los Reyes and the other alleged accomplice, Jean Antonette Medalle, chopped up the bodies of Maria Eva Mae Peligro and Gwendolyn Balasta out of rage, a close look would show otherwise.
Rage is an emotional outburst, a reaction to an actual conflict or quarrel, and is not planned like what Gudelosao, de los Reyes and Medalle may have done.
The suspects claimed Peligro’s previous objectionable actuation made Richard angry at her, but their narration of the events that led to the killing showed it was planned and not sparked immediately before it by a quarrel or altercation.
Twisted, amateurish
And there is no reason to believe the chopping up of the bodies, stuffing the chopped parts in plastic bags and throwing them in the secluded and mountainous areas of Minglanilla town and Naga, Talisay and Toledo cities were meant to intentionally spark public alarm.
On the contrary, the act was more like a twisted and crude attempt of disposing the bodies of murder victims, which proved how amateurish the killers were.
Unsolved cases
That is why the crime was not difficult to solve, although that point should not be taken away from the Minglanilla police, whose aggressive response to the incident and intelligence work were effective in the investigation.
Still, one can consider the “chop-chop” incident together with the spate of vigilante-style killings or even the robbery-killing incidents in Cebu that have remained unsolved until now and find an unfortunate contrast there.
