EDITORIAL – Cops should solve the Navarro murder

There is a saying that goes “dead men tell no tales.” And for Clarin, Misamis Occidental, mayor David Navarro it’s a case of death before dishonor.

Police are now saying the mayor, who was arrested for mauling a massage parlor worker and harassing a masseuse last Thursday before being shot dead last Friday, was actually the head of a robbery group.

As is the observation of many, it has become somewhat of a police practice to blame dead people for crimes that have not been solved or have little chance of being solved.

However, let’s say Navarro did head a robbery group. Let’s give the police the benefit of the doubt. Everyone is entitled to the presumption of regularity after all. Fine, he headed a robbery group. Now, the question is; are the police doing something to solve who killed Navarro?

Declaring him a robbery group head should not substitute for solving the crime, as if tagging him as a crime boss is enough to justify his death, whether at the hands of his former accomplices in crime or at the hands of state-backed forces, and make the public forget about it.

As of this writing no one has yet been arrested for the daring crime. Due to the nature of print media this may yet change by the time this piece comes out today, and we reserve our apologies. However, unless and until police make major developments into the murder of Navarro, people will continue to be suspicious that the police did have a hand in his death.

Look at it this way. When you compare the police response to the robbery in a Mandaue City mall compared to the murder of Navarro, you can almost say they are total opposites. Did police set up a citywide net of roadblocks to catch the armed men who killed the mayor? Did they immediately declare a hot pursuit operation and unrelentingly go after the killers?

In their hearts people really hope that the police or state-backed forces are not behind the Navarro killing, and the many unsolved killings of other politicians linked to drugs. However, they are not encouraged by the signs, hints, and observations they see.

Only the definitive solution to Navarro’s brazen and brutal killing will erase public suspicion that those who killed him do not wear the same uniform as the ones who were escorting him to court the day he was killed.