When Jimmy Largo — the suspect caught by police last Friday in the murder of Barangay Ermita Captain Felicisimo Rupinta — claimed that politics was the motive behind the killing, a lot of eyes lit up and all of them looked towards the main occupant at Cebu City Hall.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is not one to mince words, but in this instance, he decided that it’s best to let police do the talking and keep a low profile. Besides, he has a deputy mayor, Councilor Dave Tumulak, who will be his point man in overseeing developments in the case and in giving assurance to Rupinta’s family and the public that the perpetrators will be caught and justice will be served to them.
Hence, his initial short but blunt reply that he will refrain from issuing a statement on the incident. It was no secret that he had disdain for Rupinta whom he blamed for the drug problem in Ermita.
Obviously, Largo’s statement isn’t sufficient evidence to establish complicity on the mayor’s part, and no amount of inference or insinuations on Barug Team Rama’s part can pin him down as having a hand in Rupinta’s murder.
They know that talk is cheap, but it can help get them political brownie points with those outraged over the murder, which, sadly, if Largo is to be believed, had been motivated by parochial politics.
The closest that Largo had come to identifying the mastermind in Rupinta’s murder was him saying that a certain “Nognog,” a former political rival, had a hand in the Barangay Ermita official’s murder.
His statement is fraught with credibility issues, and we’re not even talking about his denial of being one of the gunmen in the incident despite being positively identified by Rupinta’s common-law wife Jocelyn Mendoza.
Largo only went so far as saying that someone propositioned him to kill Rupinta, but he allegedly turned it down saying he is friends with the murdered barangay official.
Largo knows that by naming names, he won’t have long to live in this world and someone is going to get him. That someone may in fact be the mastermind, but he won’t be named unless the Cebu City police can get to the bottom of the case.
There are two motorcycle-riding gunmen responsible for Rupinta’s murder, and there is no timetable or deadline for the police to hunt him down.
If there is one, the likelihood of them getting the wrong guy is increased exponentially owing to their tendency to cut corners just to produce a viable suspect.
Hence, the public can only wait while the police finish their investigation on Rupinta’s murder.
Rupinta’s family can ask the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to investigate the case and maybe even take the lead if only to ensure that no stone will be left unturned in catching the suspect/s and the mastermind behind the murder.
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