SAN ISIDRO, Nueva Ecija – Stalwarts of Kaya Natin! (Yes we Can!), a movement for good governance, have denounced the string of killings in the province, particularly politicians, a throwback to a bygone era where it was known as the “wild,wild West” of local politics.
Mayor Sonia Lorenzo, one of the pillars of the movement which was initially convened by the Ateneo de Manila University-School of Government, lamented that the recent surge of killings appears to have gone out of hand amid what she believes was the inability of the local police to solve these murders.
“It (killings) has become a vicious cycle. It’s very sad because we are trying to come up with a group advocating good governance and here comes these rash of killings,” she said.
Lorenzo issued her statement even after the successive killings of the presidents of the Association of Barangay Captains in the province in recent weeks. The latest victim was Sto. Domingo ABC president Guillermo Bernardo.
Bernardo, an ally of former vice governor Mariano Cristino Joson, was gunned down, along with a former barangay chairman and a civilian by heavily armed men in Sto. Domingo, Nueva Ecija last week.
Lorenzo decried that murders have been going on with wild abandon in many places of the province, many of whom remain unsolved. She cited that in this town, authorities have failed to solve the killings of former ABC president Rodolfo Lopez and those of Alex Mempin and Danny Cabiedes.
Aside from Lorenzo, Kaya Natin! is led by governors Ed Panlilio of Pampanga, Grace Padaca of Isabela and Teddy Baguilat Jr. of Ifugao and Mayor Jesse Robredo of Naga City. The movement has spoken out openly against certain key issues such as Charter change, the fertilizer scam among others.
This developed as police said Bernardo’s killing may have been the result of vendetta.
Senior Superintendent Ricardo Marquez, provincial police director, said that they are looking into the possibility that Bernardo was killed out of revenge. He said the late barangay official had been linked to some crimes for which he had been charged and even jailed although he was able to come out of jail.
Police investigations on Bernardo’s killing have been hampered by the refusal of eyewitnesses to come out in the open and issue statements on what they saw, fearing reprisals.