EDITORIAL - Shoot first, ask questions later

We have known for some time that driving in the streets of Metro Manila can be hazardous to your life. You can be killed by speed maniacs, your vehicle can fall into an abandoned street digging without warning signs, you can be shot dead over a minor traffic altercation by the likes of Rolito Go. You can be killed if you refuse to give your vehicle to robbers. Why, you can even be shot dead by bungling or trigger-happy law enforcers.

It has happened before under different administrations. In one well-publicized case, a composite team from the military, the Philippine National Police and the Presidential Security Group surrounded the house of suspected drug lord Alfredo Tiongco. When a car wandered into the scene then sped away instead of slowing down, the lawmen opened fire. The result of the raid: Tiongco escaped, but a young girl in the car was shot dead.

Now it has happened again. Members of the PNP Intelligence Group are under investigation for the death of a hotel chief steward and his teenage daughter in an apparent case of mistaken identity. Fernando Lozada was driving home last week with his daughter Clarissa Frances and her friend Marian Uson when armed men in two parked vehicles tried to pull them over on Araneta Avenue in Quezon City. Scared, Lozada stepped on the gas. The two cars gave chase. On Maria Clara street in Barangay Sto. Domingo, the armed men opened fire, hitting Lozada in the nape. As the car careened into a gutter, witnesses said the gunmen stopped in front of the vehicle and sprayed it with bullets. Lozada died before reaching the hospital. His daughter died over the weekend while Uson is in critical condition from a gunshot to the head.

Why do some cops love to open fire at those who can’t fire back? There is such a thing as rules of engagement for cops, but no one seems to have read the rules. This unnecessary use of force is another blot on the intelligence team’s commander, Senior Superintendent Reynaldo Berroya, who’s still trying to rehabilitate his image. If President Arroyo does not discipline her cops, she’s likely to have another mass execution a la Kuratong Baleleng soon in her hands. Surely she did not disband the abusive Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force to replace it with Berroya’s Intelligence Group. The President must make sure the killers of Lozada and his daughter are caught and punished. And the PNP must put an end to the practice of shooting now and asking questions later.