Impunity is a harsh word that explains why crimes go unsolved and citizens sigh in resignation when they fall victim to hoodlums.
Or when they read in the news about a senseless death at the hands of assailants, who disappear, never to be arrested.
When someone “gets away with murder”, it reinforces our worst expectations of the Philippine justice system, our trust in the rule of law and confidence in men in uniform to uphold the law.
The Feb. 18 ambush and slaying of Cebu lawyer Noel Archival and his two aides doesn’t have to follow that route.
The trail followed by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) 7 has led to the doorstep of a police agency, whose members had the means and motive to silence a lawyer known for his dogged ways of defending clients.
Now it’s known that Archival was a thorn in the side of the PNP Highway Patrol Group 7. Archival didn’t just defend clients, whose cars were impounded, he pushed back hard by filing complaints against HPG personnel, alleging extortion and abuse.
The case has been cracked open, but the murder is far from solved.
None of the four police officers named as suspects are in custody. They can disappear tomorrow and never have to explain how an impounded car in their custody was used to transport gunslingers.
We don’t know yet who ordered Archival liquidated, and if the mastermind will get away.
To ordinary citizens, this is a puzzling situation.
If evidence against the suspects is strong enough for Executive Judge Soliver Peras of the Regional Trial Court to say in his search warrant that “there is probable cause and justifiable cause” that the crime of murder “has been committed by the subjects”, why hasn’t a complaint been filed yet and a warrant for arrest been issued?
The choice of phrase is a red flag right there.
NBI agents did find what they were looking for – a red Toyota Vios sedan, believed to have been used by the killers, but another gray Mitsubishi Strada pickup on their list, was no longer in the compound of the PNP Highway Patrol Group when agents went there on March 20 to serve the search warrant.
It was a chilling discovery.
Inside the locked sedan was a copy of one of Archival’s pleadings in an administrative case where he hauled 12 HPG personnel, including the regional chief, Supt. Romualdo Iglesia, before the Ombudsman.
We commend the NBI 7 for pursuing “untouchables” and getting results after just one month.
It’s important to keep up the momentum until the perpetrators are brought to justice and the families of Archival, Candido Miñoza and Alejandro Jayme find closure.