In 2018 Cebu almost lost itself

Sometime around 2012 to 2013, I was assigned by my law office to handle cases filed by the police and military against human rights workers in neighboring Negros Island. After every court hearing I looked forward to spending an evening at the famous Rizal Boulevard in Dumaguete City. But my clients insisted that I take the first available trip back to Cebu. They said that they cannot guarantee my safety if I spend the night in Negros.

Though I never sensed any threat against our group during those trips from Dumaguete to the far town of Santa Catalina and back, I obliged and agreed with my hosts. Indeed, a person of any persuasion or intention would feel safer in Cebu going about his business unarmed. I was one of those who felt the same back then. Those were the times I took pride in Cebu for being peaceful and safe.

Then in February 18, 2014, Noel Archival, a prominent criminal defense lawyer, and his security aide were killed in an ambush along the national highway in Dalaguete, Cebu. They were in an SUV heading back to Cebu City from a court hearing in Dumaguete.

The ambush did not yet ring alarm bells on the peace and order of Cebu. At least in Attorney Archival’s case, the suspects were named and charges were later filed; though to this day justice has yet to be served to the victims and their families.

Fast forward to 2018 and the Cebu Archdiocese has issued an oratio imperata amid the spate of unsolved killings in the island. The oratio imperata speaks about the danger, not only of the killings itself, but of the community accepting it as the new normal.

A portion of the prayer says: “Nangaliyupo kami kanimo: pukawa ang hunahuna sa wala magpakabana, samoka ang tanlag sa nagpasiugda, kablita ang kasingkasing sa mga miuyon, hupaya ang dughan sa mga naguol.” (“We beg you: awaken the minds of those who don’t even care, disturb the conscience of those who author the killings, touch the hearts of those who support the murders, and comfort those who mourn.”)

Many of these killings in Cebu in 2018 were brazen and the killers showed no fear of getting caught and prosecuted. This is the unresolved story of 2018 and of what will happen next this 2019. Will Cebu see more these killings and totally lose its soul to become almost like Duterte’s Davao?

I hope not, because this is not the Cebu that I have known since I was a young child. Yes, we had our “salvagings” and SPARU units in the 1980s. But still Cebu held on as “opposition country” against the Marcos dictatorship, and even the NPA realized the folly of murdering random policemen in the name of the revolution.

Not much has been heard lately about the planned Senate probe into the killings in Cebu. Last we heard it is still awaiting schedule before the Senate committee on public order. But there is hope that the probe will still see the light of day because the Senate resolution calling for it was pushed by no less than Senator Grace Poe, an influential member of the senate and a front-runner for reelection.

We need answers to the series of almost daily murders in Cebu in 2018 – more than 40 people alone in the first two weeks of October. This 2019, let’s prove that we are still the Cebu that became the most developed region outside Manila because we value peace and the rule of law.