UNSOLVED KILLINGS
With the number of unsolved killings, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña believes the city is not safe for people.
“Not safe. It could be safer. It could always be safer,” he said in a press conference on Tuesday.
The mayor urged the police to closely investigate the killings, and to step up their anti-criminality campaign before the situation gets out of hand.
“What I see is that criminals are not afraid anymore. They’re not afraid because they have human rights and then the victims don’t have human rights,” he said while criticizng the Commision on Human Rights for just investigating deaths of suspected criminals — an accusation belied by the commision.
“So what happens, there will be more victims. You think killers will stop killing if you tell them please don’t kill? They’ll stop? You live in another world. They’ll stop when they’re scared. That’s the only language they understand,” he stressed.
Osmeña said he doesn’t have special directives to the police yet.
But if the killings go out of hand, he said he will make a move although he did not elaborate about it yet.
“You know where we would be today if Duterte did not crack down on drugs? We might not exist as a nation. We will have a caliphate in Bohol, another caliphate in Cebu, another one in Marawi and we’ll have drug lords all over the place,” he said.
Cebu Gov. Hilario David III expressed hopes that tourists would continue to visit Cebu despite the killings.
“Cebu remains peaceful amid the killings. But we cannot discount the possibility that tourists will be afraid to come here,” he said.
Lim ambush
Meanwhile, the sports utility vehicle (SUV) that was ambushed outside a bar in Cebu City last Saturday evening was registered to Ford Philippines and was purchased in Santa Rosa, Laguna based on the records of the Land Transportation Office (LTO).
Senior Supt. Joel Doria, director of the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), said they will look into the report and determine who is in actual possession of the vehicle.
Cebu businessman Peter Lim on Saturday claimed that his younger brother Wellington was inside the vehicle that was ambushed by still unknown assailants.
Wellington and his companions, who were on board the bulletproof Ford Expedition, escaped unscathed.
Security guard Wilson Bucag, 43, who guided Wellington’s car while it went out of Infinity Bar’s parking lot, was killed during the incident.
Another security guard, George Lambatan, and German tourists — Pauline Basbach, 20; and Manuel Georrings, 24 — were wounded.
Bucag’s mother Celia said they have asked for any financial assistance from Wellington. But so far, she said, there’s none.
“If there’s assistance, that will be good. But we’re not demanding it,” she said in Cebuano.
Bucag will be buried on April 2.
Based on the tally made by Cebu Daily News, at least 48 persons were killed by unknown assailants in separate incidents in Metro Cebu from February 17 to March 22. Another person was killed during a police operation.
So far, police arrested the alleged suspects in at least three of these murder cases. /with reports from Nestle L. Semilla and Ador Vincent S. Mayol