Thursday, January 15, 2009 Editorial: Arrest of suspect in cop’s slay
IT'S not flattering to the police that people seemed to have lowered their expectations amid law enforcers’ failure to stop the killings perpetrated by motorcycle-riding gunmen in the Metro Cebu area.
The hope now is that if the police cannot prevent killers from doing their thing, at least they can crack each murder case, arrest the perpetrators and let them rot in jail.
Even that hope, however, could not be realized because in most of the killings police investigations hit a blank wall, or should we say a wall of excuses, from the difficulty in identification (gunmen wore helmets or masks) to lack of witnesses.
There were instances when some suspects were arrested, but there is the feeling that either they are fall guys or their
participation in the crime is not well-established.
People apparently want something more credible from the police.
Suspect’s arrest
It is because of this sense of hopelessness that the public ends up grabbing at every morsel of success and uses this to rebuild its confidence in our law enforcers---an example being the investigation into last year’s killing of PO2 Jose James Cañete.
Elements of the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO) and the Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (Raidsotf) seemed to have cracked the case with the arrest of Arnel Tejero Montero last Friday.
Okay, Montero was arrested in a buy-bust operation (for illegal drugs) and not solely for Cañete’s killing, but still the case does seem to be on the way of being solved.
A suspect finally squealed on the alleged gunman and the supposed mastermind.
Common thread
To be fair to those named, like Ronel Wagas (said to be the triggerman) and Paquito Oyao (who is still in jail for a drug case and who allegedly ordered the killing of Cañete), their version of the story is still to be heard.
Plus there is still no assurance that Montero won’t turn around.
But the MCPO and Raidsotf seem to have stumbled into something credible and Wagas and Oyao will have to work hard to put doubts into the police’s storyline.
As it is, the people are being presented with factors that could be present in many of the killings perpetrated by motorcycle-riding gunmen: masterminds willing to shell a tidy some to eliminate enemies and guns-for-hire willing to be paid to do it.
