EDITORIAL - First, we must know the truth

Most Filipinos say good riddance when notorious crooks are killed. Whether the crooks are shot dead in a purported encounter with lawmen or slain while allegedly trying to escape, many people simply shrug off such killings. And few people are surprised that among the thugs most often shot dead are jail escapees.

One such notorious escapee was Faisal Marohombsar, founder of the Pentagon kidnap-for-ransom gang. Shortly after Marohombsar bolted the detention center of the National Anti-Kidnapping Task Force at Camp Crame last June, the NAKTAF head at the time, Hermogenes Ebdane Jr., said Marohombsar could commit suicide if he wanted. Suicide, however, was ruled out in Marohombsar’s death weeks later in an encounter with lawmen in Cavite. One of his two fellow escapees was later killed as well in another purported encounter with cops. The last one, still at large, must be contemplating suicide.

Ebdane, now a director general and chief of the Philippine National Police, gave the same unsolicited advice yesterday to Henry Tan, who escaped last month from the detention cell of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency. The cell, like the one at the now defunct NAKTAF, is located at Camp Crame, headquarters of the PNP. Tan, a Chinese national, was being held for drug trafficking. Seven policemen assigned at the detention center face criminal and administrative charges for the escape.

One senator has suggested a shoot-to-kill order for Tan. From such knee-jerk pronouncements and the utterances of PNP officials, you can tell that if Tan is still in the country, his days are surely numbered. Not that people – especially those who see flight as a sign of guilt – would shed buckets of tears for an accused drug trafficker. But people also want to find out how detainees manage to escape from supposedly well-secured jails at the headquarters of the Philippine National Police. Where are the lapses? Did cops help in the escape?

Such questions will never be answered if escapees are shot on sight instead of being recaptured, or if they follow the PNP chief’s advice and kill themselves. We all want to get rid of social blight, but we also want to know the truth.