EDITORIAL – Solve the murders

With broadcaster Fernando Lintuan making critical comments about many issues and too many people, investigators are said to be having a hard time zeroing in on a motive that could lead to those behind his murder. But investigators can narrow down their sleuthing to individuals who have the nerve to stage such a daring hit on a busy street on the morning before Christmas, in the presence of witnesses, in a city whose mayor takes pride in his law and order program.

The killer appeared confident that he could not be identified by Lintuan’s two colleagues who were in the victim’s car as he was shot point-blank several times in the head and body. There have been equally brazen attacks on other journalists in recent years. In several of those cases, most of them unsolved, relatives of the victims have voiced suspicions that politicians were behind the murders.

As in the killings of left-wing militants, the truth can be known only if the perpetrators are caught — both the triggerman and the mastermind. In the few cases where suspects have been arrested, only the hired guns are prosecuted; the brains remain unidentified.

Every case where someone manages to literally get away with murder encourages more attacks. This we have seen in this country, where hundreds of unexplained killings and disappearances of left-wing militants, journalists and legal professionals in the past years have raised concern about the human rights situation and undermined democracy.

The Arroyo administration has repeatedly reassured human rights advocates that steps are being taken to address the problem. The administration will have to work double-time if it wants to disabuse certain individuals of the notion that murder is a viable means to an end in this country, and the best way to muzzle a critical press is by silencing journalists permanently.