EDITORIAL - Canes couple deserves swift justice

With many murders happening across Cebu attributed largely by the authorities to the illegal drug trade, Cebuanos are hoping that the police are really going the extra mile to solve them because these victims do not deserve to be killed.

The latest to be killed was a young couple from Mandaue City. Michael Canes, 27; his wife, Fraldine Kate, 24; and their nine-year-old daughter, stopped late Sunday at the intersection of A.C. Cortes and S.B. Cabahug streets in Barangay Ibabao when motorcycling-riding assailants appeared and opened fire, killing the couple on the spot. Their daughter survived and is now under the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

Police claimed the victims had been involved in illegal drugs. Mandaue City Police Office director Julian Entoma said the couple had been included in the drug watchlist of the Mandaue City Police Office and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency.

However, those who know them, especially their families and relatives, belied the claim of the police, saying robbery was the motive behind the incident. They said the victims were just plain entrepreneurs engaged in a buy-and-sell business.

Whether illegal drugs or robbery, the police need to exhaust whatever means available to solve the case. Just because their primary motive behind the killings is illegal drug trade does not mean their investigation is just limited to revealing the cause.

Rather, the police need to launch a thorough investigation for the immediate solution of the case. If they think the illegal drug trade was the motive, then they should start zeroing in on those responsible for the couple’s death.

It’s really unfair to the victims and to their relatives if investigators fail to score any significant development in the case, other than just revealing the motive behind the incident, when in fact they already have an idea about the cause of the incident.

Whatever the motive behind their murder, the couple deserves swift justice.