It isn’t hard to see that Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is engaged in a pissing contest with President Rodrigo Duterte following his revival of the P50,000 cash reward offer for every criminal suspect killed in a police operation.
Even before he assumed office, Osmeña made a Facebook post stating as much: “Duterte 0, Osmeña 1. Mr. President, it’s your turn old friend.”
He issued the statement in response to a report about an off-duty police officer who nearly killed two robbery suspects at a jeepney terminal in Ayala Center Cebu last year.
When he revived his cash offer this year, the mayor also reiterated that it was President Duterte who followed his example of giving cash rewards for every criminal suspect killed. To be fair, the mayor said the cash reward will be given only to police who did so in the line of duty.
“No funny ideas ok?” was how he put it in last year’s post.
It is kind of macabre that the mayor made the cash offer during the holiday season and while the Police Regional Office (PRO-7) welcomed this development, overeager and cash-strapped police officers see this as an incentive to ignore due process and shoot down criminal suspects even if they peacefully surrendered.
To recall, the mayor withdrew his cash reward offer after he complained about the re-shuffling of police officers that resulted in the recall of his favorite city police director and police regional director. Only when the National Police Commission (Napolcom) revoked his authority over the police did he reconsider and it was only this month that he dangled the cash offer anew.
In making the cash offer, the mayor simply chooses to ignore and views as contemptible any argument that posits the possibility that it would only incentivize violence. Never mind the previous reports in other parts of the country about police being caught on security camera footage dragging suspects to their deaths in some darkened alley.
“What kind of twisted logic is that?,” he argued and justified that it will only be offered as a “legal assistance” to police officers who hesitate to pull the trigger on criminal suspects, especially the drug dealing variety.
If it were legal assistance he was after, Osmeña could have created a legal team operating under the City Legal Office to provide legal aid to police officers who may face charges for shooting down criminal suspects “in the line of duty.”
Then again, maybe paying for retainer’s fees is too expensive for his taste and he would rather let the police officers choose their own lawyers who would offer their services for P50,000.
And will police officers who receive the cash reward use it for legal services when their precinct and the city police can call on the PNP regional office for legal aid?
The P50,000 cash reward isn’t legal aid. It is a cash bounty for police officers and we hope that the city police won’t see this as an incentive and a license to kill criminal suspects. Errant police officers, of whom we believe are but a few, have ways to mask and shed their hands off the blood of every suspect killed in their operations.
How can the mayor and his subalterns at City Hall ascertain for sure that the deaths of these criminal suspects are done in the line of duty? We are sure he has his ways and any mention of due process is left for the City Legal Office to deal with.
Sadly, public opinion swings favorably towards the mayor’s cash reward and the Commission on Human Rights and rights advocates —the most hated organization in this Age of Duterte— can hardly dent that tide of support for an initiative that will incentivize a crackdown on crime devoid of due process and concerned only with raising the body count.
Disclaimer: The comments uploaded on this site do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of management and owner of Cebudailynews. We reserve the right to exclude comments that we deem to be inconsistent with our editorial standards.
