LAST week-end we saw and read a post from the Davao City Police Office (DCPO). It appealed to the public to respect the resolution of the City Prosecutor handling the case against the non-uniformed medical doctor personnel of the Police Regional Office (PRO) XI who is a suspect in the shooting to death of a young man in the vicinity of a local bar in Davao City. Fine; the public should not have any quarrel with that appeal of the police.
The controversial resolution subject of the police appeal is the one which downgraded the murder charge earlier filed by the police as well as by the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) based on the latter’s parallel probe on the case as requested by the family of the victim.
We do not think that by the public’s doubting the evaluation by the Prosecutor on the charge is a form of disrespect on the wisdom of the one who crafted the resolution. But if the police really think that it is, then in the same manner it should also respect the opinion of some in the public, especially of that of the victim’s family that the prosecutor may have also missed out certain aspects in the probe that would have made him agree with the charge of murder.
Anyhow, that is what the prosecutor seemed to have found in the evidence made available in the police and NBI charge sheets. That is his assessment. Whether he erred or not only time will tell. Of course the family of the victim can still have its option to appeal the prosecutor’s resolution. But that would mean further delay in their desire for justice and a huge financial requirement to boot..
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The shooting incident last Sunday at the Ateneo de Manila University campus that led to the death of the former mayor of Lamitan City in Basilan and two others was some kind of a real “family feud,” not the television show type hosted by Dingdong Dantes.
Based on the statement issued by the arrested perpetrator who is also a medical doctor in the same city, his act of killing the former lady chief executive of that city in Basilan was his ultimate act of helping put a stop to the very long-drawn enmity between his family and that of the former mayor’s husband.
The suspect who is facing multiple cyber libel and other cases filed by the mayor’s family, sounded like his killing of the former lady Lamitan official is a personal sacrifice on his part to supposedly deliver the people of that Basilan city from the alleged corrupt governance of the Furigays dating back from the family patriarch up to the present.
The suspect who admitted to the police the crime committed is one Dr. Chao Tiao Yumol who by his narration also belongs to a prominent family in Lamitan.
He mentioned about the unabated flow of illegal drugs in the city without the Furigay administrations doing anything to address the problem. Dr. Yumol even seemed proud of his killing the former mayor because it may trigger an atonement by the city’s ruling family of the sins they have committed against the Lamitenyos. He further claimed that there are so many things that were deprived of the simple folks of Lamitan under the long rule of his victim’s family.
The suspect Dr. Yumol was even proud in saying that he is not regretting his action if it would mean a trigger for the change of the situation in Lamitan.
On the surface it may appear that his act was some kind of a personal vendetta. But if all he said is the true picture of the city then something good may come out of his bloody act. It was only unfortunate because his crime could be the end of the line of his profession.
Yes, had he not done the act and if he were to live several more years of his life, he could have helped a good number of Lamitan residents with his expertise in medicine. But he already made his choice. So be it.
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Yesterday President Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos, Jr. delivered his first State of the Nation Address (SONA) and what he said met the expectations of many even as there were those who believed that the President’s SONA was far off from what they hoprd the President would have tackled.
We have earlier surfaced our own expectations from the speech of PBBM. But since his SONA was delivered late yesterday afternoon we have to do our own assessment whether our expectations were met or not as well as comment on the entirety of his speech in our piece tomorrow.
