Those Batangas killings

Journalist Arnnel Manalo was buried in a heavy downpour last Sunday, with thousands – despite the pouring rain – joining his widow and two children, aged 9 and 11, in mourning him. Their tears won’t bring him back, but the government will, at least, console his family, his community, and the nation by tracking down his mad-dog killers and smashing them with the mailed fist of justice.

Alas, this is not likely to be soon. Justice in this land is not merely characterized by the blindfolded lady, but by the slow-creeping snail. However, the police are welcome to surprise us.

Arnnel, who worked for Radio DZRH and the newspaper Bulgar, was gunned last Thursday by motorbike-riding killers. He was slain in Bauan, Batangas, just after he had brought his kids to school.

The perpetrators and the mastermind may not be the same, but the same bike-riding hit-and-run technique was utilized when a courageous Executive Judge, Voltaire "Butch" Rosales, 48 (not Rosario as was mistakenly published yesterday) was cruelly shot to death by a motorcycle-riding assassin just 100 meters away from his court room. Judge Rosales had just finished his cases for the day in his sala (RTC Branch 83) in Tanauan, Batangas, and was driving home that June 10th. The killer waited for him to slow down for a hump in the road, then opened fire, with the lethal bullet penetrating his head just above the left ear. The assailant next sped off, with a back-up car tailing him.

My column yesterday, which complained that nothing has thus far resulted from the investigation into the murder of a brave judge (who had sent kidnappers, drug pushers, rapists and murderers to jail in many heinous crime cases), elicited the following response from the PNP:

The police reported that "Task Force Rosales", created to investigate the judge’s murder under CIDG Deputy Director Nick Radovan, has already pinpointed three "possible suspects including the mastermind". Their identities however "are still being kept under wraps as it might prejudice ongoing operations". The PNP did admit that the suspects have "standing warrants of arrest" for other heinous crimes they committed in the past.

If this is so, why weren’t the suspects previously arrested? This might have prevented them from moving against the judge – and might have saved his life. (Of course, the mastermind could then have contracted other killers.)

Moreover, the police revealed that two eyewitnesses have positively "identified" the three suspects who are "known guns-for-hire in the area". (The assassination is believed to have been mounted by drug distributors, since Judge Rosales had convicted drug pushers and was trying cases involving illegal drugs at the time of his murder.)

In any event, we’re assured, the police are in pursuit of the murderers. Here we are, almost two months after the judge’s death. It’s time the law sank its teeth into someone, other than lamely saying the cops had placed possible hideouts of the suspects under "close surveillance".

Would you believe? The police CIDG (Criminal Investigation and Detection Group) has now named its investigating team in the case of slain Journalist Arnnel Manalo, "Task Force Mediaman". Well, it’s true enough – as recent events have demonstrated – that mediamen are at risk everywhere (not to mention the latest case in Gen San).

As for Batangas, it’s fast regaining its past notoriety for violence. When I was a boy, Batangas was called the province of Butangeros. It was known for the deadly beinte-nueve, the 20-inch fan knife – one flick and you’re dead. The weapon of choice has been replaced – it’s now the gun wielded by a motorcycle-riding assassin.

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Just as I completed the above narrative, I received a faxed message from Police Chief Supt. (Gen.) Arturo C. Lomibao, director of the CIDG, that the task force is now called "Task Force Newsmen" to encompass all journalist victims. The TF "Newsmen" is formally headed by Police Senior Supt. (Colonel) Nicasio J. Radovan, Jr., and will focus "on the investigation and prosecution . . . on murder of media personalities".

That includes the recent killings of three journalists – namely, Arnnel Manalo in Bauan, Batangas; Roger Mariano in San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte a week earlier; and Jun Abayon of General Santos City, who just expired yesterday.

Radio Commentator Roger Mariano of DZJC in Laoag City, was shot to death last July 31 at about 8 p.m. in Barangay 23, Sta. Cecilia, San Nicolas, Ilocos Norte, by three "unidentified" gunmen. Mariano was riding his Yamaha 125 DT motorcycle when he was ambushed by the suspects, who were armed with M-16 automatic rifles and a carbine.

An outspoken radio commentator, Mariano had recently been assailing the proliferation of illegal gambling, particularly jueteng, as well as alleged irregularities in the Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative (INEC), and what he termed anomalous activities regarding the Sanitary Landfill in Dingras municipality.

With regard to Manalo, who was also a columnist of Dyaryo Veritas (The Truth Daily) and People’s Courier, he was shot down on August 5 (Thursday) at 7 o’clock in the morning along the national highway in Brgy. Manghinao I, Bauan, by two suspects. He was enroute home in his own owner-type jeep (plate no. DRC-336) when he was flagged down by his brother, Apollo Manalo, for a ride. While Apollo was getting aboard, a red motorcycle carrying two men came up, stopped – and the "back rider" suddenly opened fire on the reporter. The victim succumbed to two gunshot wounds, while his brother was unscathed. The gunmen fled the scene after accomplishing their deadly mission.

The CIDG Director said in his report to this writer that "investigators are eyeing three possible angles . . ." Chief Supt. Lomibao related that Manalo had been raising questions in his column about the slaying of PO3 Roberto Bagsit of San Jose MPS, Batangas, on July 6, 2004, "a massacre that transpired in Laguna and cases of murder and rape filed against a prominent personality in said locality."

"On the shooting incident in General Santos City involving Jun Abayon of GMA-7, this group is still awaiting the official report from the Regional Officer of 12RCIDU." (Kindly don’t ask me to unscramble that alphabet soup of initials – even an old police reporter like yours truly can’t keep up with the latest acronyms and terminology.)

But, hopefully, spurred on by media nagging, our policemen will bestir themselves and get those killers. Our provincial journalists in particular are an endangered species.

* * *

As for our judges, who’re also on the firing line, I noticed on the front page of yesterday’s International Herald Tribune (a New York Times subsidiary daily edited in Paris) that the second lead story was headlined: "Iraq’s Most Wanted is a Busy Judge."

The article by John F. Burns, datelined Baghdad, commented that "if Raid Juhi al-Saadi is not the world’s most endangered judge, he must be close." His "current load of 12 cases for mass murders and other crimes begins with Saddam Hussein . . . collectively, the 12 defendants are being investigated for the killing of tens of thousands of Iraqis during Saddam’s 24 years in power."

The story says that "American troops with M-16 rifles patrol the corridors outside his office. At his door, Iraqi bodyguards lurk with holstered pistols. Outside, Humvees wait to escort him to his home, where his wife, and their three small boys live behind concrete blast walls designed to withstand rockets and vehicle bombs."

Surely, I wouldn’t trade places with the 34-year old Judge Juhi.

On the other hand, the slain RTC Executive Judge Butch Rosales had no such "protection" – no M-16 toting American soldiers guarding him, no bodyguards with holstered weapons. No concrete blast-proof walls for him and his family. He was slain almost next to his court room while driving his own car – unarmed and undefended.

These are our everyday heroes. Let’s not leave them defenseless to be martyrs, or unavenged when they’re murdered.

* * *

Why should Malacañang resent The 9/11 Commission Report, the Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States for reporting the other week that the Philippines is one of the havens for terrorists? We very well know that we are.

The Commission Report, signed by its Chairman Thomas H. Kean and its Vice Chair Lee H. Hamilton, reads like a novel, but it’s fact, not fiction – the product of painstaking inquiry and research by a bipartisan panel of five Republicans and five Democrats in the wake of the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks in which nearly three thousand people died – in lower Manhattan, in New York’s Twin Towers, on a field in Pennsylvania (where one of the hijacked air liners crashed), and in the Pentagon, along the banks of Potomac.

On November 27, 2002, US Congress and President George W. Bush created, by Public Law 107-306, a commission to address the question: "The nation was unprepared. How did this happen, and how can we avoid such tragedy again?"

The 567-page report is the result of that painstaking study.

The report is not flattering to the state of unpreparedness of the US itself. We mustn’t expect to be flattered by it, in contrast. We remain the "weakest link" in the fight in Asia against terrorism. Why, we’re even mollycoddling the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), many of whose ca-dres are obviously working in league with the ruthless Jemaah Islamiyah.

As for Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda, we’ve long had links with them, not just through the Abu Sayyaf, but through other organizations here. Let’s not fall prey to that old line in literature: "Me thinks the lady doth protest too much."