EDITORIAL — That nagging feeling

An alleged drug user was arrested after he shot dead two men and a woman and wounded another man last Friday night in Sitio Jagna, Barangay Maribago, Lapu-Lapu City.

It was later found out that the suspect, Eduardo Ramos Taghoy Jr., 41, had just been released from prison four months ago where he spent time for a drug-related offense.

He later said that he shot the victims because he was convinced that they were "bad" people.

“Mga tirador to sir. Mga salbahis to. Mao ra may akong pangpatyon. Kanang mga salbahis nga nagbasol, di ko g’yud na pamatyon... kadungog mo? Mga killer to sir, mga tirador to,” Taghoy said in a report in this newspaper.

Because police found drug paraphernalia in his house after his arrest, police suspect he was high on drugs when he committed the crime.

Four months is a long time, and is certainly enough for anyone to turn over a new leaf. But in this case it would seem Taghoy fell into the drug habit again after his release from jail, and this time with tragic consequences.

And now we are again led to ask if our jails are really places where people get reformed, or if they are places where they actually get worse.

We also have to ask what steps are being taken to make sure people just released from prison do not become recidivists. Do they have access to means of livelihood, or programs that can keep them off drugs?

It was lucky he was arrested quickly after the incident; he still had two bullets in his .45 cal. pistol; who knows whom he had in mind for those last two bullets in his addled state of mind.

We can’t help but get that nagging feeling that if our prison program was better designed to rehabilitate inmates, and our society better equipped to accommodate those who have been released from prison, then perhaps three people would have still been alive today.