IT WAS supposed to be a joke, albeit a sick one.
After Clarin, Misamis Occidental Mayor David Navarro’s arrest on Thursday, Oct. 24, 2019, the talk was he’d better not try to grab the firearms of his captors during transport, otherwise he’d share the same fate of the four men suspected of being involved in the robbery at J Centre Mall last Saturday night, Oct. 19.
The robbery suspects were shot dead hours after they were arrested trying to flee Cebu because they grappled for the guns of their arresting officers. With their hands tied behind their backs. At least, that was what the police said.
Don’t get me wrong, though. I am not criticizing the authorities.
After all, what the heck were those men thinking, anyway? Staging an armed robbery in one of our malls. Luckily, the establishment doesn’t allow its security personnel to carry firearms inside the premises or there would have been a shootout. Innocent lives would have been lost. Cebuano lives.
The suspects reportedly belonged to a robbery group based in Ozamiz City. Only one of those killed was from Cebu, although it was not determined if he was a native of the island, which might explain the lack of a public outcry.
I hate to admit it, but I have no sympathy for outsiders causing trouble in our soil. So don’t expect me to feel sorry when these guys get caught or killed.
And yet, news of Navarro’s fatal ambush shocked me. I was even appalled when I saw some members of the media try to interview the grieving widow and the mayor’s sister moments after the incident. One stuck his cellphone right next to the face of the wife—I assume it was the wife—who was sobbing uncontrollably. I wanted to yell at the guy to give her some privacy.
Navarro was not exactly a model public official.
Not only was he on the March 2019 narco list of President Duterte, he was also linked to the Parojinog drug group based in Ozamiz City.
According to the information fed by the National Capital Region Police Office to the local police, Navarro and Dante Navarro, the leader of the Alferez Robbery Group based in Ozamiz City, were one and the same person.
Police then revealed that they had traced the J Centre Mall robbery to the Alferez group.
Perhaps it was no coincidence that a workshop on Clarin’s development plans was held here in Cebu City two days after the robbery.
None of this would have come to light if Navarro hadn’t punched a masseur on Thursday night, Oct. 24. When news broke out that the mayor lost his temper because the spa couldn’t provide him with a female massage therapist who could give him a helping hand, it quickly spread.
It was a salacious affair that had many locals sniggering.
But no one was laughing when, on Friday afternoon, Oct. 25, the mayor was pulled out of the vehicle taking him to the fiscal’s office by four men carrying long firearms and then shot. When he fell to the ground, one of the attackers grabbed him by the bulletproof vest and shot him pointblank in the head.
One of the witnesses thought he was watching a movie shoot. Because, come on, no one could fathom an ambush taking place in broad daylight in front of so many people. Just as no one could believe that men would rob a mall on a Saturday night.
Not in Cebu, anyway.