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Monday, June 05, 2006
Oro mayor: 'Shoot to kill' order stays
By Lizanilla J. Amarga
CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY -- Mayor Vicente Emano vowed that even if it means facing legal charges he will not retract his shoot-to-kill order against any snatcher or hold-up suspect who resists arrest.
"I will not retract my order...I am willing to face any charges," he said Sunday.
Former city vice mayor and opposition mayoralty bet Antonio Soriano earlier said Emano should rethink such an order.
"No local executive has the legal basis to issue a shoot to kill order," he said.
For Soriano, it is not "only illegal and unconstitutional but definitely a crime against humanity."
"It is a violation of the basic human rights. Nobody can be rendered judgment without a day in court," he said.
During his radio program Sunday, Emano hit back at the opposition for questioning his order.
"What does the opposition want...that it would be our police officers who will be stabbed or gunned down?" he said.
The mayor said snatchers and other hold-up suspects are encouraged by the statements of opposition members.
He said he is willing to face any human rights violation charge that the opposition might file against him, and recalled the shame parade that he ordered in the past year.
The shame parade was Emano's idea of ordering 10 suspects, four of them minors, to wear placards with their names, ages, and supposed crimes. He had them paraded all over the city.
"At that time the opposition filed charges against us but these came to nothing," he said.
Emano said Soriano's statement was issued for political reasons. "This is all politics," he said.
Earlier, the city experienced a spate of robberies that included the theft payroll money of a security agency by unidentified armed men that resulted in the wounding of an employee.
Police also reported an increase in the rate of hold-up incidents. Some include two hold-up incidents that occurred in passenger jeepneys.
Even Cagayan de Oro City Office Police director Aurelio Trampe confirmed the rise in the city's crime rate, particularly hold-up incidents. (Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro/Sunnex)
(June 5, 2006 issue)
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