Time to bust crime

THE numbers have been telling.

With so many abductions and killings taking place around the province over the last couple of years, some of which involve high-profile personalities such as Mayor Julian Resuello of San Carlos City, the series of crimes are obviously the handiwork of organized groups. These syndicates have been working fearlessly and the audacity with which they have been operating largely stems from either the noted ineptness of law enforcement agents or the corruption in the police organization.

And so though long overdue, the provincial police’s announcement of a manhunt against the Mendoza crime syndicate is an encouraging development. Suspicions are rife that the members of the group are either convicts released from prisons to accomplish ‘missions’ by either corrupt wardens, or former soldiers or cops. These rumors are of course inflamed by the fact that the crimes never seem to get solved. The Mendoza group, for example, is believed headed by Willy Mendoza, a former policeman turned wanted man who is now in jail after he surrendered to the National Bureau of Investigation some years back. Although behind bars, he is suspected to be still in touch with his wards who are still on the loose and could be behind various killings in Pangasinan.

We hope that P/Senior Superintendent Percival Barba’s public announcement last week on the manhunt is as serious as he projects it to be. We wish that at last we are seeing something more concrete than the formation of special task forces every time someone prominent becomes a dead victim.

Too many ‘task forces’ have been formed in the past with the names of victims appended to them to give the impression that the police is acting swiftly. But the reality is, to this day, most remain as ‘task forces’, indicating that crimes were not solved.

It even took some time before the police acted on the suggestion that they check on the presence and identity of motorcycle riders (particularly those riding in tandem), as well as the registration of motorcycles made randomly amid the increasing reports of killings by assassins who usually carry out drive-by shootings.

The off-and-on campaign against loose firearms has also contributed to the ability of the crime syndicates to operate with impunity.

Then there is also the question of the police’s use of its huge intelligence funds. Are these being utilized for purposes other than what they are mainly intended – to neutralize crime syndicates preying on unsuspecting businessmen, politicians, non-government organizations, and other institutions?

Each unsolved violent crime reflects not just the police’s organizational incompetence but a failure to do one of their most basic of duties — protect the human rights of the victims.

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