EDITORIAL - Mysteries

A year ago today, popular actress Nida Blanca was found dead in her car at the parking area of the Atlanta Centre in Greenhills, San Juan. She had multiple stab wounds and appeared to have been dead for several hours. Public outrage over the brutal murder galvanized into action law enforcement agencies, which came up two weeks later with a suspect: a self-confessed gun-for-hire named Philip Medel. The alleged killer said he was hired by Blanca’s husband Rod Lawrence Strunk to kill the actress for P50,000.

There was only one problem: five days after being presented to the press, Medel went into a hysterical fit at the Department of Justice and retracted his confession, claiming he was tortured into owning up to the crime. The National Bureau of Investigation was forced to release Medel. And with no case against him, Strunk left for the United States last January. But in July, Medel was rearrested in connection with a P10-million libel case. Investigators then brushed aside the retraction of his confession and charged him with murder. Strunk was also indicted for parricide.

The NBI says it has a strong case, but it’s not surprising that Blanca’s daughter Katherine is reportedly dissatisfied with the developments in the investigation. There are too many loose ends in this supposedly tight case, and the government’s record in solving sensational crimes does not inspire confidence. Law enforcement agencies have yet to solve the abduction and murder of publicist Salvador "Bubby" Dacer and his driver in November 2000. Then there was poor Edgar Bentain, the employee of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. who disappeared shortly after leaking to the public a videotape of then presidential candidate Joseph Estrada playing baccarat at the VIP pit of a government-run casino.

There are many other unsolved cases, and if the Nida Blanca case goes to trial on flimsy evidence and half-baked accusations, it will end up in that list of mysteries archived and forgotten. If law enforcement agencies want to regain public trust, they will have to do better than this.