Scrolling down: how political rivalry competes with the illegal drugs angle in the murder of the Ronda mayor, as it did in the killing of VM Ungab last February
BUT first, the confusion over the claim that President Rodrigo Duterte's proclamation #572 repealed the proclamation issued by then president Noynoy Aquino of 2010. PP #572 does not. It invalidates only the amnesty granted to former LTSG Antonio Trillanes IV. All the others who accepted and benefited from the amnesty are not affected.
And yes, a day after the DND certified on August 30 that the document about Trillanes's application for amnesty and admission of guilt was "not available," the president signed his proclamation. "Not available" didn't mean the documents didn't exist. They just couldn't be located. As it turned out, Trillanes did file those documents, as shown by news reports and video clip of the filing. The question, how did they disappear?
One thing more, Trillanes has placed himself under the custody of the Senate where police and military troops were not allowed, and they didn't press, to get in. "Don't hide under the 'saya' of the Senate," teased actor Robin Padila. Grow up first, retorted the senator.
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Possibility 'floated'
Just after Ronda, Cebu vice mayor Jonnah John Ungab was shot dead six months ago outside Qimonda that houses the Cebu City courtrooms, his brother Jonald "floated the possibility" that politics had to do with the killing.
The other motive, which convinced more people, was trafficking of illegal drugs: Janjan lawyered for Kerwin Espinosa, a self-confessed drug lord.
With the murder of Atty. Janjan's uncle, Mayor Mariano Blanco III, Wednesday dawn (September 5) in his office at the Ronda town hall, where he had been sleeping, by armed raiders, many people assumed it was again due to illegal drugs.
Blanco was named in 2016 by President Duterte was one of the people in his "narco list." He had been using the "municipio" as his sleeping quarters, thinking he'd be safe there. He was not. The police who routinely guard the town hall, a few meters away from the police station, couldn't even protect him.
But the suspicion of Jonald, who at a press-con in February asked the police to look into the political "scenario" after the murder of his brother, emerges anew with the killing of Mayor Blanco. Jonald at the time talked about the suspension of Blanco and Atty. Janjan's plan to run for mayor in 2019. Would Blanco's death fit into the "conspiracy theory" that his nephew Jonald spun early this year? By the way, Jonald ran against Blanco in 2016 but lost. A rematch obviously would no longer be possible.
Flaw of theory
The major flaw with the theory: It would assume that Blanco had the evil streak to have his own nephew, his running mate for three terms, killed just because he had become a potential rival in politics.
And the flaw with the same theory now, as applied to Blanco's death: would Jonald, the likely suspect in this speculation, have the same evil streak to strike back at his own uncle?
Blanco 'spoon-fed' him
Against the suspicion raised by his nephew Jonald on Atty. Janjan's murder, Mayor Blanco then said he took care of Janjan when he was still a child, saying he even spoon-fed him, And in politics, Janjan had always been allied with him, from councilor to vice mayor. What would be Jonald's defense now, as to his uncle's death?
The only way to rule out politics, or the illegal drugs factor, is for the police to solve both the Ungab and Blanco killings.
Apparently though, that might take long to happen, if ever it would. Most likely, the two killings would just end up in the police list of cold cases.
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