Comendador: It’s unfair to blame police for unsolved vigilante slays
It would be unfair to put all the blame to the police over the unsolved vigilante killings because the police is only one of the five pillars of the criminal justice system, said City Police director Patrocinio Comendador yesterday.
Senior Supt. Comendador decried that oftentimes, whenever somebody is shot in vigilante manner, the police are immediately blamed.
He said that of the 181 victims, believed to be fell by the so-called vigilantes, only four cases were actually filed at the city prosecutor’s office. The criminal justice system, which should resolve these cases, is however not the monopoly of the police, he said.
Comendador said that the ‘five pillars of criminal justice’ consists of the PNP, the prosecutor’s office, the Courts, the Corrections, and the community’s cooperation. If one of these falters, it would be hard for the police to solve crimes, he explained.
PNP Director General Avelino Razon, Jr. last Wednesday ordered the City Police to put an end to the vigilante killings because these are actions that are no longer be acceptable in today’s society.
Comendador said he accepted the challenge then ordered the conduct of more police beat patrols, police visibility, and checkpoints that would stop criminals on their tracks and deter other people from carrying firearms around the city.
Those are all the City Police could do best however, said Comendador, adding that even the highest intensity in anti-crime drives would not be an assurance that vigilante killings would stop. “We would always do our best to solve vigilante-killings, but putting an end to these may not be our prerogative.”
This is because the police alone is not the sole holder of the key to resolve this matter, said Comendador. “The criminal justice system, as a whole, must work efficiently as one so that people would be discouraged to make shortcuts against criminals,” he said.
The police official cited that almost all vigilante victims have a common background in criminal activities such as robberies, theft, snatching and other petty crimes against properties. Many of them were former convicts or inmates of the
Without passing the blame to the other pillars in the justice system, Comendador said the law against crimes must have more teeth to stop criminals from going back to their old ways, and to reform them as good part of the community.
The police have been arresting criminals but when these criminals, after release from prison, go back to their old ways then something must be done in our justice system and see where the problem lies, he said.
Some of those killed since December 22, 2004 were criminals who have either posted bail or were exonerated from charges due to the complainant’s loss of interest in the case. These realities might have driven the so-called vigilantism to take place, said Comendador.
Comendador also bewailed the unwillingness of the victims’ families and the community to help the police in solving crimes and vigilantism. It would be difficult to resolve a case without strong witnesses, he said.
Homicide section chief, Insp. Mario Monilar, added that the public has been divided over the issue of vigilante killings. There are some who favored it as a way of stopping crimes and there are those who criticize but do nothing about it.
On investigations about some vigilante killings, Monilar disclosed that some of the cross-matching tests on evidence gathered from crime scenes have matched with some other evidence taken from previous shootings.
The police however are faced with the problem of having no identity on the owners of the guns used in the killings to come up with a match. — Edwin Ian Melecio/RAE
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