[] And most probably the “usual suspects” don’t include Minglanilla, Cebu Mayor Rajiv Enad who, Guv Pam suggested, might think she was the cause of the mayor’s suspension.
IT’S SERIOUS, SURE IT IS. Any threat of injury or death against a public official should be treated seriously. The sensible reason: It could happen and might happen.
Unless there’s showing that it’s highly implausible or most probably a prank, police official policy is to consider each warning real and probable.
The higher the official, the quicker the attention, the more diligent the investigation and response.
WHY THE SKEPTICISM, which came not just from the camp of Gwendolyn Garcia, her political rival in the 2025 election but also from a number of other people?
Here are explanations for the slightly-raised eyebrow, if not the look of utter surprise:
[1] Doubting Cebuanos do not see a cause compelling enough for any person or group to resort to fatal violence.
OK, ex-governor Garcia is capable of intensely hating Baricuatro. Especially when the incumbent governor -- in video clips for social media -- poses, prances, sways or otherwise performs, as if she were doing it solely to spite her, like saying, Eat your heart out, Gwen.
Still that won’t be a reason for knives out or blazing guns, a P2.5 million “assassination” no less, as Guv Pam’s pub-mat about the threat called it. There just isn’t any reason -- among the theories speculated on -- strong enough for one to order a hit on Cebu province’s chief executive.
[2] Reports on the death threat clashed, particularly on how the governor learned about the plot.
Guv Pam said she was surprised by the big number of police officers at the Cebu airport upon her arrival February 5, 2006 from Fujian Province, China until she was briefed about the death threat.
Another media report though said the police were surprised by the news and would investigate the “Kill Pam” threat. If police confirmed it and they were the governor’s source of information, there must be two different sets: the cops who informed the governor about the threat and the cops who were surprised but said they’d investigate it.
In either case, police showed they were ready “to serve and protect.” As of Tuesday, February 10, 2026, Philippine National Police Chief General Jose Melencio C. Nartalez Jr. said he already ordered an investigation.
Two teams, instead of just two escorts, now guard the governor. Fourteen armed police guard, 24/7, Guv Pam. Even during her sleep. Including, one may assume, when she dances for the camera to produce video content.
[3] The P2.5 million looks small, though not paltry, to skeptics, given the firestorm the event would set off and, of course, considering the rate of inflation.
That may be true as public exposure of Guv Pam has been wide and intensive -- probably matched only by her predecessor Gwen -- which correspondingly has also made her a top-value target.
There would be a lot more noise and heat from top law enforcers and high officialdom if the dreaded event, heavens forbid, would occur.
Yet there are still assassins around who’ll take the job. You’ll be surprised, a former CIDG investigator told me, they can come cheap if you know where to look.
UNFAIR AND BASELESS, YES, BUT NOT TOTALLY CRAZY if some people would ask themselves or their close friends if Gwen Garcia and Glenn Soco had anything to do with a “kill-Pam” plot.
Those two top-tier personalities are not the “usual suspects,” not under police investigative standards, but the public mind -- idle and teased by Pam-Gwen exchange of potshots in social media -- toys with the idea, if only for the fun of it.
A politician who can be assigned motive to hit back at the governor is Enad. Not because Guv Pam accused him directly but because she mentioned his suspension from office along with her disclosure of the death threat. Also addressing other mayors, she said she had nothing to do with the suspension.
CEBU HAS NO RECORD OF ASSASSINATION. Two governors in the country were murdered while in office: Conrado Lerma of Bataan in 1918 and Roel Degamo of Negros Oriental in 2023.
No governor in Cebu was killed during or after his term.
Not counting, that is, the Japanese invaders’ execution of: (1) Hilario “Dodong” Abellana who was elected in 1940 as governor and served during the Japanese occupation and (2) Jose S. Leyson who served as governor, after Abellana, in 1944 to 1945.
Abellana was arrested September 1944, then killed January 1945. Leyson was killed during the Japanese retreat to the mountains in 1945.
TOMAS OSMEÑA HAD COMPLAINED OF DEATH THREATS. More than once.
On March 7, 2010, when he was running for congressman in Cebu City south, Tomas got a text message while entertaining at his Guadalupe house. He said he got a death threat.(“Start saying good-by. Your days are numbered.”) His reaction then, “I’m not taking it lightly but we don’t live in fear.”
On August 10, 2018, while serving his last term as mayor, Tomas told Rappler -- after the murder of 10 mayors since then president Rodrigo Duterte assumed office -- he was afraid he’d be next. “Of course, I am afraid. You have to be crazy not to be afraid.”
GUV PAM SPINS THREAT by using it to pitch her catchphrase, namely, “serving the people” as “governor of the people.”
Like, she was telling would-be assassins to spare her a few more years so she could continue serving her constituents longer. How few? Did she say, until 2028 or maybe 2031? Or was it for more?
Say, about the same length of time that five-termer Gwen Garcia had served as Cebu governor?