EDITORIAL - Shortcuts to justice

This has happened often enough that by now police should be familiar with it. A suspect signs an affidavit, confessing that he committed a crime. The suspect meets the press, tells his story, and the case is deemed closed. Days later, the suspect recants his statement, crying torture.

Former security guard Philip Medel Jr. announced his retraction last week in dramatic fashion, going into hysterical paroxysms as he was presented at the Department of Justice for preliminary investigation. Medel showed bruises that he said were inflicted by his police captors to make him confess to the murder of actress Nida Blanca. Now the investigators are themselves under probe, and the case has been taken over by the National Bureau of Investigation.

Probers said the man tagged by Medel as the mastermind, Blanca’s husband Rod Lauren Strunk, was not yet off the hook. But they have to admit that the case has suffered a serious blow as a result of Medel’s retraction and allegations of torture. There have been similar cases in the past. Two sets of suspects were arrested, tried and acquitted before a third batch was convicted of the murders of Estrellita Vizconde and her daughters Carmela and Anne Marie Jennifer. The third batch is still appealing the case.

Few crimes can be quickly solved. But cops don’t like unsolved crimes: it’s bad for their unit’s record and for their careers. Sensational crimes – those that are especially gruesome, or where the victims are prominent, are particularly worrisome. Often there is powerful pressure – from the public, from Malacañang, from the Department of the Interior and Local Government – to present a suspect to the public and declare the case solved.

In the absence of leads, there is a strong temptation to resort to short cuts, including arbitrary arrests and torture. Such methods can eventually lead to the acquittal of an accused, which means the case remains unsolved and justice is denied the victim or his heirs. With this latest allegation of torture, the Philippine National Police has found its credibility suffering further. Short cuts to justice may be fine for publicity, but the truth eventually comes out. Medel’s case should convince PNP investigators that there’s no substitute for painstaking sleuthing and that there are no short cuts to justice.