EDITORIAL - Remember Pique

One of the biggest local stories to hit the pages recently was the rape and killing of 10-year-old Kiara Namanama who was found dead in a cave in Sitio Napo, Barangay Tapul, Talisay City, last January 9, three days after she had been reported missing.

A suspect has been arrested for the crime, her own cousin Ian Rey Baculi. While Baculi also said he had three other accomplices in the crime, police are inclined to believe only he was responsible.

This case calls to memory another similar one; the abduction and killing of six-year-old Ellah Joy Pique.

Last February 8, 2011 Pique was abducted while she was on her way home from school in Barangay Calajoan, Minglanilla town, and found dead the following day in Barili town.

Unlike the Namanama case which saw a speedy resolution, the Pique case has yet to be solved.

The case turned sensational after two suspects, one of them a foreigner, were accused of the crime. After they had been cleared another local-foreigner couple were charged in the abduction and killing of Pique. However, the court later sided with the defense, saying that DNA tests and witness’ testimonies yielded nothing that helped establish the guilt of the accused.

Of course we wish to see the case resolved and the guilty charged and punished, but when we consider how police investigators retire or are transferred, how time affects everything including evidence and the memory of witnesses, we also fear it is likely to turn into what police call a cold case.

Next month will be 11 years since Pique was killed. Even after all this time it’s unlikely the family and friends of Pique have recovered from the pain.

The rest of the world may have moved on, but those who are left behind by the victims in cases that have yet to see justice will always remain trapped in a painful time bubble even as life goes on around them.

Unless the police choose to take another look at this case, perhaps the only thing we can do is pray for justice of the divine kind; the kind that can never be dealt by any earthly court.