EDITORIAL - Police involvement?

The case of the killing of Clarin, Misamis Occidental, mayor David Navarro has taken on a new twist when President Rodrigo Duterte transferred the investigation from the Philippine National Police to the National Bureau of Investigation.

Duterte suspected police involvement in the killing of Navarro, who was one of the local officials the administration accused of being involved in the illegal drug trade. In fact, the mayor’s name appeared twice on the president’s narcolist.

The president found it unbelievable how Navarro’s police escorts failed to react when masked armed men blocked them and yanked him out of the PNP vehicle he was riding to the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office Friday afternoon.

Well, Duterte’s suspicion will remain a suspicion unless of course there is strong evidence that would support it. Whether or not the policemen were indeed behind Navarro’s assassination is for the NBI to determine.

Based on the manner of his murder, it would take professional assassins to pull off such an act. And since it was well-executed, we cannot blame many, including Duterte, if they suspect police involvement in Navarro’s killing.

The police have been accused of having a hand in the deaths of high-profile personalities in the Duterte administration’s heightened war against drugs. Therefore, the possibility of them being behind Navarro’s murder is there.

However, all the allegations against the police are just purely a form of suspicion in the absence of compelling evidence against them. That is why they are still innocent unless proven otherwise by the court.

Meanwhile, pending the result of the NBI investigation and the filing of charges against those responsible, it seems all fingers are pointing to the police as behind the murder of the town mayor from Mindanao.

These accusing fingers may have no concrete proof to reinforce their claims, only banking their allegations on the many extrajudicial killings the police have been proven to be involved in. But whether or not these accusations are based on solid grounds remains to be seen.