Anytime, anywhere?
Senior Superintendent Moses Villaceran of the Mandaluyong City Police Station has a suggestion, particularly after the killing of Jose Luis "Sel" Yulo in broad daylight, along EDSA last Sunday. He suggests prohibiting riding-in-tandem motorcycles on EDSA, similar to what Mandaluyong has been doing. Villaceran said that since he took office in 2016, there have been no riding-in-tandem incidents in Mandaluyong. He also encourages other cities to follow the ordinance, to serve as a hindrance to murderers and guns-for-hire using motorcycles. I agree. In fact, ban riding-in-tandem all throughout Metro Manila. Make the necessary guidelines governing those who really have to ride on motorcycles, such as couples or children. But two males on a motorcycle should always be suspect. Let law enforcers make it a hassle for those who insist on riding-in-tandem.
The Eastern Police District has already created Special Investigation Task Group Yulo to speed up the investigation. The motive of murder is still unknown as of this writing, but police have begun to follow certain leads. The Criminal Investigation and Detection Group is also involved. NCRPO chief Director Guillermo Eleazar, in an attempt to allay public fears of a brazen shooting, has stated that crimes perpetrated by motorcycle riders has reduced by 53% in 2018 compared to 2017.
But those numbers do not really mean anything once you become a victim. The question is how could this shooting incident occur on EDSA, in the middle of the afternoon? It did not happen on some small, out-of-the-way road. An election gun ban is also in place. Someone told me that there was a man walking along the southbound lane of EDSA but onto oncoming traffic, still wearing a helmet and black clothing. He kept looking over his shoulder, as if watching out for something. They did not know that a shooting had taken place at the time, so they just wondered as the man was walking casually on EDSA. If it was Yulo's shooter, he did not seem concerned no afraid of any law enforcer catching up or accosting him. Why is that? Are the murderers so confident of carrying out their crimes in a society now numb to killings, where even the DFA Secretary has threatened to “kill anyone asking for a birth certificate for passport renewal”? Is it so easy to kill people, anytime, anywhere?
We can only hope that the criminals are swiftly brought to justice, both the perpetrators and the mastermind, if any. The PNP has been proudly citing the latest survey where a majority of Filipinos believe there has been a significant decrease in the number of drug addicts in their respective areas, calling the campaign against illegal drugs a success. But what about the number of murders since this administration took over? Surely it runs into the thousands, the so-called “death under investigation”. That's what the PNP should also divulge. The illegal drug trade is not the only crime that plagues a society.
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