Media Urged
Despite the spate of killings, which have remained unsolved, that happened in Cebu, Police Regional Director, Chief Supt. Robert Quenery insists Cebu and the rest of the region, is still safer today than it was last year.
“Murder cases went down in the first quarter of the year. And based on our records, murder is not even among the most prevalent crimes here,” he said in a press conference.
Quenery said there were 135 murder cases in the region from January to March 2018 compared to 170 cases over the same period last year or a decline of 35 cases.
All other index crimes such as rape, physical injury, theft, robbery, carnapping also dropped by 44 percent in the first quarter of 2018.
He instead blamed media for the perception that the killings are a cause for alarm.
He said that while there have been 46 unsolved murder cases in Metro Cebu in just about a month, these were but “isolated” and should not alarm the public.
“Perhaps, it just so happened that the incident came one after the other. But you just cannot lump these killings into one. Each has its own circumstance, be it personal grudge, work-related, jealousy, or illegal drugs. We cannot say there is a series of killings because there has been no pattern on how they were committed,” Quenery stressed.
Drug-related?
The profile of some of the murder suspects given by the police had some kind of a link to drugs. Some of the victims were Tokhang surrenderers, others were allegedly in the police watchlist for illegal drugs and still others allegedly involved in drug pushing, although investigators often pursued the angle of ‘personal grudge.’
“It sounds alarming because the media portrays it to be that way. You are counting the deaths, so it turns out to be a series (of killings). It creates an alarm by whoever the news reached. Obviously, anybody, a local government official or not, would take that banner story as it is,” said Quenery who assumed as the region’s top police official in January 2018.
“Kaya noong nag-announce si President Duterte, nagbilang na yong media at ito ni-lump into one ang mga patayan. (That’s why when President Duterte made an announcement, the media started to count the killings and lump them into one). It’s unfair. Huwag naman ganon. (Please don’t do that),” he added while beaming.
Quenery said there is a possibility that members of drug syndicates are now killing each other because of the government’s intensified program against illegal drugs.
The death of three suspected drug personalities in Lapu-Lapu City on Thursday evening, he said, can be a proof of the intense rivalry between drug groups.
Investigators said the three victims — Reno Egos, Orbel Inihao, and Saldy Dungog — were allegedly involved in the illegal drugs trade.
Quenery said the successive killings in Metro Cebu that started a week after the President’s statement should not be interpreted as something sanctioned by the state.
“Let us stop speculating. What your police would really want is to have our place a safe place to live and do business,” he said.
“There is no need to be alarmed. The killings are isolated and we are trying our best to solve the crimes that have been committed,” he added.
Quenery did not show a breakdown of crime figures per city and province.
Cebu Daily News, however, got official data from the Cebu City Police Office that showed that the number of murders in the city had gone down from 31 cases in January to March 2017 to 29 over the same period in 2018.
Records from the Cebu Provincial Police Office were not available yet on Friday although it reportedly showed the same trend as that of Cebu City.
‘Give us time’
The PRO-7 chief appealed to the public to give investigators enough time to solve the killings, saying they are doing their best to unmask the perpetrators.
“Investigation is not like a Math problem that happens today and you solve it tomorrow. There has to be a tedious and rigorous examination of all facts. What makes it difficult is when there are no witness,” Quenery said.
“More often than not, the perpetrators were wearing masks. Because of that, we already have a hard time identifying them. But I trust that we can have a breakthrough on each case presented before the investigators,” he added.
Quenery said he already directed all concerned police stations chiefs and unit heads to leave no stone unturned and to seriously get to the bottom of the killings.
“Everything is under investigation. It has always been my instruction to my unit commanders to have a speedy probe on these cases,” he said.
Prevention
In the meantime, Quenery said they are doing their best to prevent any killings by enhancing police visibility in key areas.
“We maximize the deployment of policemen to lessen the opportunity of criminals to commit crimes. Motivation is harder to stop because a determined killer would do it even if we have these anti-criminality programs,” he said.
“If, in case, we slack in preventing crimes, the next thing we can do is to solve the crimes,” he added.