EDITORIAL - Unsolved

The way events are unfolding, the murder of environmental advocate Gerry Ortega may never be solved. Ortega, who gained renown for running the Crocodile Farm in Puerto Princesa, Palawan, was gunned down outside a used clothing store in the city on Jan. 24, 2011. The gunman, who was apprehended after a brief chase by the police, implicated three men in the killing. This eventually led to the inclusion of Ortega’s political rival, former Palawan governor Joel Reyes, in the charge sheet along with former Marinduque governor Jose Antonio Carrion.

Reyes and his brother Mario, former mayor of Coron town, disappeared after they were tagged as the brains behind Ortega’s murder. In June 2011, however, the Department of Justice junked the charges for insufficiency of evidence. An appeal by Ortega’s widow prompted the DOJ to form another panel, which reversed the dismissal and revived the charges in March 2012. A year later, the Court of Appeals voided the new indictments, ruling that the creation of a new investigating panel violated procedural rules. Recently, the CA affirmed its ruling.

The Reyes brothers are not yet home free; the DOJ has vowed to take the case to the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, Ortega’s relatives face the prospect of a long wait for justice. They are not alone in their anguish. Relatives of activist Jonas Burgos, University of the Philippines students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeno, publicist Salvador Dacer and his driver Emmanuel Corbito, and the many other victims of killings and disappearances attributed to state forces are also waiting for truth and justice.

A minor consolation for Ortega’s relatives is that he was given a proper burial. Burgos, Cadapan and Empeno remain missing while only dental records led to the identification of the charred remains of Dacer and Corbito.

A principal suspect in the kidnapping, torture and disappearance of the UP coeds, retired Army Maj. Gen. Jovito Palparan, is at large like the Reyes brothers. Meanwhile, the military general suspected of involvement in Burgos’ enforced disappearance was recently promoted.

These are all high-profile cases whose masterminds have not been caught. It is a failure of the state, which breeds impunity and guarantees that there will be more enforced disappearances and assassinations.