THE Philippine National Police (PNP) must intensify its manhunt against the killers of student activists, Senator Aquilino Pimentel III said Wednesday.
Pimentel made this call after the police still could not find the killers of student activist Cris Hugo, who was gunned down in 2006.
Hugo was only 20 years old when he was killed by assassins reportedly sanctioned by certain elements in the government of then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, whose near decade rule from 2001 was marked by allegations of electoral fraud and corruption.
“Unless justice is done, killing political activists in the activity would be like an albatross that will weigh down the positive achievements of the present administration,” said Pimentel, chairman of Senate committee on justice and human rights.
Pimentel vowed to maintain a database of all unsolved killings and “move to make the crime of murder imprescriptible so that killers can be brought to justice anytime a killing is solved by the police."
A United Nations report in 2007 blamed the army for most of the killings under Arroyo's term, but no action has been taken and the unexplained murders continue in the administration of President Benigno Aquino III. (Sunnex)