A nation gripped with so many killings

Despite the gun ban imposed by the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and supposedly enforced by the Philippine National Police (PNP), the Palace of Justice was once more a scene of a crime early Tuesday morning. This time, three peopleJohn Pope, a 67-year-old Canadian. Assistant City Prosecutor Ma. Theresa Casiño was wounded in the shooting.

I said that the Palace of Justice was once more a scene of a crime because there’s just been too many shootings within the Palace of Justice grounds in the last decade. I recall that a few years back just before the May 2007 elections, Rogelio Ilustrisimo, the former Mayor of Sta. Fe, Bantayan who was again running for Mayor was shot and killed by a lone gunman in the Palace of Justice grounds. Then further back through the years, there was a group of robbers who were about to be arraigned and was shot by a man on a motorcycle with a back rider dressed as a woman who fired a machine pistol and killed two of the robbers. These were all unsolved crimes.

The shooting at the Palace of Justice has shocked Cebu City, which just celebrated a boisterous Sinulog Festival last Sunday without any incident… then this had to happen. As the reports show this was a grudge killing as Dr. Rene Rafols already filed several suits against John Pope. Dr. Rafols was with his lawyer Atty. Juvian Achas when Pope gunned them down.

Of all people who were the last to talk to Dr. Rafols and Atty. Achas, it was my wife’s uncle, Atty. Eddy Rosello, brother of my father-in-law who was also in the courtroom, but left the two for a few moments to talk to another lawyer when Pope barged into the courtroom and shot his victims. I had a long talk with Uncle Eddy who told me that Atty. Achas died in his arms and his new barong was bloodied. Apparently everyone in the courtroom disappeared when the shooting began. He was the last man standing.

The big question everyone wants to know is why is security in the Palace of Justice so lax? I hope to bump into Supreme Court Administrator Midas Marquez to give him my insights about the security there whenever I have to go there for my own hearings. This early, I suggest that the Supreme Court install close circuit cameras in every courtroom and the main doorways as a deterrent to would be killers in the future.

This very public shooting inside a courtroom in the Palace of Justice also sends a chilling message to unarmed civilians… that they are all helpless against armed criminals who continue to roam our streets. We are at the mercy of the PNP, who may have done a good job during the Sinulog Festival, but failed to stop a raging Canadian from killing his neighbors.

Meanwhile, it’s just the start of the New Year and our nation is already gripped by so much violence and people are starting to ask why? Perhaps as a way to show his leadership by example, President Benigno Aquino should also impose a “gun ban” on himself in the hope that it just might reduce the raging criminality happening around the country.

I was struck by the well-written report on the ongoing criminality by Interaksyon.com, the online news portal of TV5. All this began with that controversial but still unresolved “Atimonan shooting” which no less than Department of Justice Secretary Leila de Lima insisted was not a shootout, but could be an ambush or a rubout.

It makes you wonder, why didn’t the DOJ Secretary use the word “massacre” because in my book it is the Atimonan Massacre. Perhaps she didn’t want to “taint” the Aquino regime of this massacre because when they were in the opposition, they chastised to the bone the Ampatuan massacre as one of the gravest faults of the Arroyo administration.

But as the Interaksyon.com report pointed out, “Since January 1, no less than eight “shootouts”— as reported by the police—have happened, with the final tally of 24 fatalities. Three more suspected criminals—the 22nd, 23rd and 24th—were added Tuesday to the list of casualties of what uniformed operatives claimed as an exchange of fire.” This report sends chills in my spine that our cops may just have been ordered to kill first and ask questions later.

Another interesting item was when the report said, “All of the slain suspects, except one, yielded cheap “Paltik” .38 cal revolvers, manufactured and sold by local gunsmiths based in Danao.” Just think… all but one of these fatalities except one used one kind of firearm a .38 cal revolver manufactured in Danao City, Cebu? Perhaps I’ve been watching too many CSI TV series, but this is highly improbable. Criminals carry different firearms… not just one type. Forgive my suspicious mind. A bank holdup at the Robinson’s Mall in Fuente Osmeña last year showed the robbers carried automatic pistols not revolvers. Could it be that the police planted these revolvers beside the dead criminals in order to make it look like a shootout? Just asking!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to vsbobita@mozcom.com or vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.