EDITORIAL- Still no closure to the dela Victoria case

When the Regional Trial Court sentenced police officer Marcial Ocampo to a maximum of 40 years in prison for the killing of Bantay Dagat director Jojo dela Victoria, a lot of people came to believe that justice had been served.

To be sure, there is no failure of justice here. A suspect was brought to court, subjected to public trial, and determined guilty based on the evidence at hand. Still, there are those whose quest for justice seems unsatisfied.

This feeling is understandable. In fact it is to be expected. For while Ocampo has been determined by the court to be the killer, the trial failed to show convincingly that he had acted alone, leaving room for speculation that he had acted on behalf of another.

Ocampo and dela Victoria were strangers to each other. They did not know each other from Adam. In other words, there was no compelling reason for Ocampo to just decide to shoot and kill dela Victoria out of the blue.

As to who that third party is - the widely-believed mastermind - there is no telling. Ocampo is not expected to breathe a word, especially since, to this day, he continues to protest his own innocence.

That does not mean of course that the police should stop looking for the brains. However long it will have to take, the police must remember that, for all intents and purposes, this case has only been partly solved.

Only with the identification, capture, trial and subsequent conviction of the mastermind will this case come to a full closure, with justice fully served, and dela Victoria earning his final rest.

Without such closure, the killing will forever remain a serious affront to any sincere effort by authorities to carry out their mandated duties, which is what we believe the killing of dela Victoria was all about.