YOU know that the election is drawing near when the noise from the political front goes up several decibels. This is when the spin masters and their clients are at their busiest and most imaginative. If, as a quote attributed to the late Rep. Ramon Durano says, politics is the game of the devil (duwa sa yawa), the playground at this stage is frenzied and overflowing.
The voter should be wary of every politician’s claim. Not only are these people, save a few, historically lacking in credibility, the desire to win, which is strongest at this point, removes whatever little trace of honesty that they had before the election campaign heated up. They even lie about their lying. They call it propaganda.
I used to marvel at how earnest a candidate can make himself look even when he was giving the audience b.s., and how he could wax melodramatic over some, probably imagined, hurts when only a beat earlier, he had them roaring in laughter. He must have had the benefit of years of practice or he was just born a performer, meaning liar.
Let’s stop being enablers. Leave no doubt to the candidate that you know that you are being lied to and are not happy about it. With God’s grace, a new era might dawn when politics is no longer the devil’s game, when candidates render a true accounting of themselves and their plans.
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Who killed Christine Lee Silawan? Three people have on separate occasions been taken into custody, each identified as at least a person of interest, but until now the question remains unanswered.
First, there was Jonas Martel Bueno, a farmer from Danao City, who was supposedly a member of a cult that killed another farmer with the same brutality that Silawan was slain. He was arrested in Davao City, but the police quickly cleared him of Silawan’s murder as he had a solid alibi.
Next came the victim’s former boyfriend who was arrested by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), who announced that they would charge him with murder. The 17-year-old was however ordered released from custody by the Lapu-Lapu city prosecutor’s office. The release displeased President Duterte and prompted him to call the prosecutor. After the President’s call, the prosecutor bargained with the suspect’s mother to entrust him to the Department of Social Welfare and Development.
And then last week, acknowledged drug user Renato Llenes confessed to killing Silawan. The police said they are convinced that they now have the real killer but wanted him to undergo a lie detector test and a psychological evaluation.
The absence of an eyewitness has made it difficult for the NBI and the police to build up a case that can stick in court. What makes their work even more daunting is the presence of do-gooders like the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO), who have again come into the picture as they often do in headline-hogging cases.
The PAO said Silawan was raped, contrary to the findings of the autopsy conducted by the police crime laboratory. Apparently, PAO released its report without coordinating with the police and the NBI.
Last Saturday, an obviously irritated Police General Debold Sinas said they will ignore the PAO report. He was reacting to the refusal of the victim’s mother to sign the complaint against Llenes unless the ex-boyfriend was also impleaded. Apparently, she believed the PAO that her daughter was raped.
It has been more than a month since Silawan’s body was found in an abandoned lot in Lapu-Lapu City, but the question of who killed her continues to hang despite Duterte’s order for a speedy resolution.
Maybe, the President should order the outsiders to keep out of police work.