EDITORIAL - The robbers must be stopped

Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña has assumed responsibility for the series of robberies that struck the city since January. As mayor, he said the buck stops on his desk and that it is wrong and unfair to blame the police chief, who just assumed office.

Was that the real Tomas Osmeña talking? Sorry for asking, but that sounds more like a candidate for reelection trying to convince people he has a humble, apologetic and even kind side after all.

At any rate, we are not taking Osmeña up on that. That is something between him and the Cebuano electorate to settle come May, when the midterm elections are held and the mayor goes up for his third and last term.

We are interested, however, about the series of robberies he mentioned. The robberies may not have involved staggering amounts of money, but they were high profile enough to give the city a bad name. That five robberies happened in just a little over a month makes it worse.

We are interested because we suspect something more sinister behind the robberies than just the usual need of criminal elements to make a quick buck. Indeed, in an earlier piece, we suggested the probability that the robberies may be election-related.

A few months back, police and military intelligence reported the arrival in Cebu of suspected criminals from Mindanao, which is often tagged as a source not just of terrorists but of criminal elements as well, such as kidnappers and robbers.

But whatever suspicions may have arisen at the time almost naturally became associated with what Cebu was then in hectic preparation for - the 12th Asean Summit. And what criminals may have come at the time cannot but lie low. The place was creeping with security forces.

But now the criminals are up and about. And we have to expect more. This is where Osmeña and the police must really step in. They must not allow Cebu to become the capital of holdups, or worse, a source for illegally-funded campaigns.