EDITORIAL - Unsolved murders

Even with the country confronting a killer pandemic, armed violence takes no rest. Last Thursday night, Mayor Caesar Perez of Los Baños, Laguna was walking inside the town hall compound on his way to the municipal hall when he was shot twice in the head. The killer is at large.

Reports said Perez became the 15th mayor to be murdered during the administration of President Duterte. Perez was also reportedly the ninth among local government executives included in the President’s so-called narco list to be killed. Perez had vehemently denied involvement in the illegal drug trade. His inclusion in the narco list led to his loss of supervision over the Los Baños police force.

The hit is similar to the assassination of Mayor Antonio Halili of Tanauan, Batangas by a sniper on July 2, 2018. Halili was standing in a line with some 300 other city officials and personnel for the flag-raising ceremony at the city hall grounds when he was picked out by a sniper and fatally shot in the chest. Like Perez, Halili was also said to be in the President’s narco list and was also stripped of supervision over the local police in October 2017. The murder remains unsolved.

In May 2017, Perez’s younger brother Ruel was also murdered in San Pablo City, Laguna. Ruel, who was also linked by law enforcers to the illegal drug trade, was on a motorcycle with another man when two men on a motorbike pulled up and opened fire. Ruel’s companion was unhurt. The gunmen remain at large.

Caesar Perez had talked of threats to his life, according to Laguna Gov. Ramil Hernandez, who condemned the assassination. With no witnesses to the attack, this murder could go the way of the many other killings in this country that remain unsolved. While there are people who support a tough approach to criminality, short cuts to law enforcement can lead to the killing even of innocents. And every unsolved crime breeds impunity. Every murderer who remains at large is free to kill, again and again.