EDITORIAL – Cartographs and likenesses

Judging by what were published in the local newspapers yesterday, it appears that the NBI has two sets of cartographs pertaining to the likeness of the alleged killer of lawyer Richard Sison, whom NBI agents arrested early last Tuesday.

Two newspapers published identical cartographs while another published a different sketch. The two identical cartographs appear to be new, and rendered much later. The different sketch seems to be the original one, rendered shortly after Sison was killed on May 21.

Why there are two different sets of cartographs, presumably by the same NBI artist, only the NBI can explain. But explain it must, and fast, because the existence of two drastically different likenesses can cast a cloud of doubt on the case the NBI has.

The NBI passed off the two different sets of sketches as based on descriptions provided by witnesses. But there have been no new witnesses who surfaced after the murder, otherwise the NBI would have said so. So how come the same witnesses can spur an artist to make two drawings?

Even a cursory look at the two sets of cartographs will show that the obviously original sketch does not look anything like the suspect. On the other hand, the presumably new sketch clearly hews more closely to the person now in NBI custody.

We are not trying to impute anything on the circumstances surrounding the arrest of the suspect. Like everybody else, we would like to see the case move forward so that justice can be served in the aftermath of this dastardly crime.

But we are not comfortable with the fact that two grossly different sets of cartographs are made to pertain to the same suspect. We are even more uncomfortable with the thought that we could have been made an unwitting party to something we have dedicated ourselves to fighting.

Again, while we are greatly uncomfortable with this development, we do not wish to impute anything on anyone. So we will just have to wait for the NBI to explain the discrepancy and hope it does so convincingly.