I CAN compare the investigation on the brutal ambush slay of Clarin, Misamis Occidental Mayor David Navarro to a small-time magician on the sidewalk who sells bottles of massage oil (haplas). Before he sells his products, he performs first magic tricks to attract and gather people. He promises to turn an egg into a bird, turning Japanese paper into various colors and play with his big “sawa” (snake). In plain and simple Bisaya language: “Gilipat-lipat lang ta ani” (We’re being tricked).
Why am I saying so? The circumstances surrounding the ambush and the ongoing investigation have raised more questions than answers. Why did President Rodrigo Duterte order the transfer of the investigation from the police to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)? Because this is to avoid public suspicion of a whitewash because he said “Perhaps, the police killed Navarro.” So, if the police will handle the investigation, it will be perceived as “moro-moro.”
Navarro was killed in an ambush perpetuated by more or less 10 fully armed men on board a white van while he was being escorted by Cebu City Police Office policemen and his relatives in going to the City Prosecutor’s
Office along M. Velez St. on Oct. 25. He was brutally murdered. There were three others who suffered injuries, including a CCPO policeman. His police escorts, including the Clarin chief of police, failed to return fire at the perpetrators, prompting suspicions that the entire episode was “scripted.”
That is the reason the President ordered the NBI to conduct an impartial investigation on the case. If the police will be the one to investigate the case, and when there will be no progress or no one will be charged in court, the public and relatives of the slain mayor will think that there is a whitewash, like what happened to the killings of high-profile victims. Like Ronda Mayor Nonie Blanco, his vice mayor and nephew lawyer Johna John Ungab, former Medellin Mayor Ricky Ramirez, and the ambush of San Fernando Mayor Ninette Reluya where his husband Nonoy, including an aide, was killed. Ninette survived.
The Navarro case is a test to the investigative capability of the premier investigating agency in the country. If they cannot identify, much more prosecute the suspects, then no justice will be served to Navarro. But is the order of the President to transfer the case to the NBI really an honest-to-goodness investigation or just to appease the mayor’s relatives? The President said Navarro was his supporter.
Navarro was included in the list of narco-politicians revealed by the President himself before the May elections. By claiming that Navarro was his supporter, is that tantamount to admitting that Duterte had welcomed the support of a known personality involved in illegal drugs? Relatives of Navarro claimed that the slain mayor was already cleared because he meet with the President two months before he was killed, and the mayor’s elder brother was appointed to head the Tesda in their region. Are these enough justifications that Navarro was already deleted from the list of the narco-politicians?
Was Navarro killed because of his alleged involvement in illegal drugs or was it because he was suspected to be the financier of the Ozamiz City-based Alferez Robbery Group? Police sources said that David Navarro and Dante Navarro, the alleged financiers of the Alferez Robbery Group were one person. Dante had a link with the dreaded Kuratong Baleleng Gang and had several pending warrants of arrest for robberies. But the family denied this allegation.
And why only CCPO Director Col. Gemma Vinluan was relieved? If we talk of command responsibility, where does it end? What about Maj. Eduardo Sanchez, Abellana Police Station chief, where Navarro was booked for physical injury, unjust vexation and acts of lasciviousness? Sanchez directly supervised Navarro’s transport to the fiscal’s office. And what about PRO 7 Chief Valeriano De Leon, who ordered the arrest of Navarro at the airport? Was Vinluan made into a sacrificial lamb? Is this a temporary relief or forever? Just asking? If the entire episode was scripted, she should be instead promoted and awarded, not sanctioned because she was just “following an order” from “I don’t know.”