EDITORIAL - Murder City, no; Failure of leadership, yes

With unsolved "Murder No. 102" taking place, and the count dating back to Christmas just last year, some people, including a few in media, have been tempted to start calling Cebu City as "Murder City."

We agree that the murders, suspected to have been perpetrated by vigilantes, have become too alarming for comfort. But we disagree with the notion that Cebu City has become a "Murder City," whether in these parts or anywhere else.

We still believe that the Cebuanos, who make up what we call as Cebu City and not the geographic space that they just happen to occupy, are still worthy to be called a peace-loving people.

The murders we see happening with alarming regularity are not the handiwork of Cebuanos as a people. They are instead the product of a combination of factors of which the biggest is the failure of leadership.

The failure of leadership in this city is the one single most compelling reason why unsolved murders have become alarming. If the buck has to stop somewhere, it stops at the office of the one who calls himself the leader of the city.

Indeed we remember distinctly that it was our leader who announced unbidden sometime around Christmas last year that he was forming a team to "search and destroy " criminals and that it was not long after that that the killings started.

We are not accusing our leader of having anything to do with the killings, although he has admitted it himself that he may have inspired them. But forming what he called the "Hunters Team" was an indirect admission that regular law enforcement has failed.

And when our leader failed to stop the killings, indeed seemingly defending them instead, the failure of leadership only became even more apparent. For leadership in civilized societies is always about the preservation of law and order, not their transgression for whatever end.

Murders can never eliminate criminals no matter how sweepingly and frequently they are carried out because murders are crimes in themselves. Criminal victims may be wiped out but the perpetrators of murder become criminals themselves, thus ensuring the continuity of crime.