EDITORIAL - Cornered

When Jason Aguilar Ivler was finally cornered yesterday, it was in the first place that investigators had visited two months ago, at the start of the manhunt: his mother’s home in Blue Ridge, Quezon City. And up to the final moments, Marlene Aguilar-Pollard, who once told investigators that her son might have already fled to Hawaii, insisted her fugitive son was not at her home. When raiders of the National Bureau of Investigation finally got her to open the door to a basement that the lawmen did not know was there, the raiders were met by gunfire, as shown in TV footage of the operation.

In the ensuing firefight, two NBI agents were wounded. Ivler, shot several times, continued to resist arrest, as the TV footage showed, but was eventually weakened by his wounds. As of yesterday afternoon, additional charges were being readied against him, including possible violation of gun laws. His mother, meanwhile, was indicted for obstruction of justice. The NBI is still studying whether Ivler’s stepfather, Stephen Pollard of the Asian Development Bank, should be included in the charge sheet.

Ivler was traced through the vehicle with ADB license plates issued to Pollard, which the suspect was driving when he allegedly shot dead Renato Ebarle Jr., the son of a Malacañang undersecretary, during a traffic altercation on the night of Nov. 18. Ivler at the time was already a fugitive, having jumped bail for the killing of Nestor Ponce Jr., a Malacañang official, in a traffic incident in 2004.

In between the two killings, the fugitive managed to get hold of – or hang on to – a caliber .45 automatic and an M-16 rifle. He also obtained armor-piercing bullets for the rifle, which the NBI said he used as he fired away at the raiders yesterday. Ivler was carried away from the basement wearing a tactical vest packed with rifle magazines.

That a young man could obtain such weapons and special ammunition shows how easy it is for civilians to circumvent the country’s tough gun laws. Even as the NBI is commended for its determined sleuthing, authorities should intensify their crackdown on loose firearms. There are other individuals out there just waiting for the chance to give full rein to homicidal tendencies. They should not be given that chance.