EDITORIAL - Task forces and cash awards don't work

Police and local government officials have created a task force and are considering the grant of cash awards as part of the initiative to catch the killers of assistant city fiscal Patrick Osorio.

The twin moves are reminiscent of the task force created and cash awards dangled in the aftermath of the killing of lawyer Richard Sison. In fact they remind us of every task force and every cash award that came on the heels of every high profile killing in this city.

But the most glaring reminder that they evoke is none other than the absolute fact that they have not helped solve the murders for which they were initiated. In other words, task forces and cash awards do not work. They are flat useless.

Yet, officials never seem to run out of enthusiasm in creating a task force or dangling a cash award. It is as if the task force and the cash award have become necessary reflexes to murder, more prevalent even than the sign of the cross after lightning.

Are the creation of a task force and the dangling of a cash award a subconscious effort to hide what are clearly the most deficient part of all law enforcement in these parts -- lack of skills and lack of initiative?

Actually, there is nothing wrong in creating a task force, although a cash award should be rejected for a good number of reasons, among them that law enforcers are already paid to do a job and solving crimes is precisely that kind of job.

Had task forces and cash awards actually worked in the manner in which they are supposedly intended, then there would have been no eyebrows raised each time they are paraded before the eyes of Cebuanos expecting only that their city be kept safe from criminals.

But having been an absolute failure, their continued invocation begins to grate against the sensibilities of a peace-loving communinity that asks nothing fancy from their officials other than the performance of their jobs in a way that inspires appreciation and confidence.