EDITORIAL - Enemy at the gates

If three ambushes in a week, one resulting in the death of a businessman, are not enough to become a major cause for concern for all Cebuanos, just take a look at the kind of weaponry used in the attacks.

Killers for hire have apparently graduated from using ordinary pistols and revolvers and are now using Ingram machine pistols. This probably means that the killing profession has now become lucrative enough to be sophisticated.

There used to be a time when killers were content with home-made "paltiks" or other cheap guns. But just as in any business, the kind of equipment often helps in determining the price of contracts, in addition of course to the professional skills of the contractors.

And so it became increasingly clear that those who are stuck with "paltiks" are the petty thieves who go for the cheap dirty stuff like cellphones and necklaces. The more professional demands of the criminal trade required better skills and, naturally, better weapons.

It thus came as no surprise that such names as an Ingram machine pistol would eventually become a household word in the world of crime. If Cebuanos were surprised at all, it was because they did not expect the day to come so soon.

Cebuanos are driven by a peaceful-living character. While we are intelligent enough to know that the day will eventually come when crime will be the price we will have to pay for big city living, we still naively clung on to the hope that that time will not come.

But then here it is, right at our very doorsteps. And it is not meekly pushing on the doorbell. It is trying to kick its way in. Indeed it already has one step through the door. Unless we put our full weight against that door, crime will eventually come crashing in.

The recent events clearly show there is a need for a concerted effort by the entire Cebuano community, and not just the police and other law enforcers, to put its collective weight against that door.

 The kind of relatively peaceful living we have enjoyed throughout our entire history as a people is now under very serious threat. The enemy is at the gate and we cannot just fold our arms and pretend it is not going to happen to us because it already is.