EDITORIAL – A thriving business

How much is human life? In this country, the price of a mobile phone. That’s about P25,000, paid by installment, in the case of Charlene Santos, a 27-year-old call center employee. Santos had held on to her cell phone as her fellow passengers in a taxi van were divested of their valuables by three armed men Sunday night in Pasig City. One of the suspects noticed and demanded that Santos hand over her phone. When she pleaded with the thug, he shot her dead, grabbed the phone and fled.

Santos is not the first victim to be killed over a cell phone. The sale of stolen phones is a thriving business. Snatching a mobile phone from the hands of people deep in conversation is easier than grabbing a handbag or picking pockets. The phones are also easy to resell through fences. In 2003 mobile phones topped the list of items targeted by snatchers in Metro Manila. Victims who fight back often get killed or wounded.

This scourge will continue until law enforcers crack down on fences. Admittedly, this isn’t going to be easy, especially with legitimate phone-swapping schemes becoming popular. There are telltale signs, however, that can give away thieves. How often do people change phones, and how many units can they swap within a particular period? Cops can seek the cooperation of dealers of second-hand phones and operators of phone-swapping businesses in catching thieves. Those who refuse to cooperate must be monitored for possible fencing activities.

The death of Charlene Santos is also a reminder that the police must sustain the campaign against loose firearms. If even cell phone snatchers are going around the nation’s premier region with handguns, think of what sophisticated crime rings have in their arsenals.

Yesterday police announced the arrest of the principal suspect in Charlene’s killing. Ryan Concuera, a 22-year-old member of a street gang, denied the accusation, but he was identified by the driver and passengers of the taxi van. Police said Concuera has been in and out of jail since he was 18 for various crimes. There are others like him out there, armed and dangerous, ready to kill for a cell phone.