EDITORIAL - Death threats

Buried in the inside pages of local newspapers last week was a story about the threats on the life of Cebu City Mayor Michael Rama. The mayor himself revealed that he has been receiving death threats in relation to his job.

Cebu City Police Office director Noli Romana assured that there's adequate security for the city's chief executive. While he did not know that Rama has been receiving death threats of late, Romana said those are normal for politicians.

How serious are the threats to Rama's life? Well, no one knows. But because he holds City Hall's highest position - a job that also includes seeing to it all is in place from garbage collection to maintaining peace and order - we can only support his announcement that those threats have something to do with his work.

But Rama's style is not like that of Rodrigo Duterte, a tough mayor feared by robbers and drug dealers in Davao City. Rama seemed content in letting the cops do the job in the campaign against criminality while Duterte aggressively leads in the law enforcement efforts in his city.

Granting Duterte also receives death threats in relation to his job, his situation is far more serious than that of Rama. Between the two, there is no question that Duterte has certainly more enemies because of his aggressive stand against criminality.

Remember that Cebu City is not like Davao City where vigilante killings have become common in an atmosphere where death squads notoriously function like a legitimate law enforcement agency.

But compared to Cebu City, where the police are facing a tall order against the rising criminality, Davao City has a relatively peaceful environment because of the tough approach by its authorities on crimes.

Since Rama is not as tough as Duterte in fighting crimes, there is doubt as to whether the death threats he receives have something to do with the fight against criminality. Had Rama been personally more involved in the anti-crime campaign as Duterte, those death threats would have been more serious.

However, the fact that they are death threats is something the police should look into thoroughly. And it greatly helps in the investigation if Rama himself would divulge the real score behind the threats to his life.