EDITORIAL - Impunity

In Cavite, a restaurant owner was murdered last Sunday over an unpaid bill of P510. A day later, a radio commentator was shot dead in E.B. Magalona town in Negros Occidental. Investigators are still trying to determine if Neil Jimena’s murder was work-related. Jimena leased airtime for his political commentary on DYRI-RMN Radio in Iloilo City.

At least the suspects in the murder of Cavite restaurant owner Cristina Viaje Perido were immediately apprehended. This could be because the cops had a good idea of who might have smashed her skull and left her to die by the roadside in Cavite. Perido had sought police help when four construction workers failed to pay their P510 bill in her restaurant. The cops arrived and apprehended the men, then moved to take them to the police station - in two tricycles, one of which was driven by one of the suspects himself. Perido was kidnapped by the suspects; hours later, she was found dead.

That was an appalling way of taking custody of crime suspects, but at least Perido’s suspected murderers are in police custody. In Negros Occidental, investigators have not found the killers of Jimena, who was shot by two men on a motorcycle. His murder followed that of Camarines Sur broadcaster Romeo Olea, who was fatally shot twice in the back as he drove a motorcycle to work last June 13.

Regardless of whether the murder was work-related, authorities must find Jimena’s killers and bring them to justice. The Philippines has already built an unsavory reputation as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists. Every unsolved murder reinforces the culture of impunity, whose worst manifestation was the massacre in Maguindanao.

Perido’s brutal murder, meanwhile, highlights police incompetence that contributes to the culture of impunity. Authorities should come down hard not only on Perido’s suspected killers but also on the cops whose laxity in custody of crime suspects contributed to her death.