IN THE past two weeks after the rape-slay case of a woman architect from Calinan, Davao City, crimes in this Southern Mindanao metropolis appear to be in an alarming situation. Worst, the crimes are alleged abductions, the victims of which are people believed to be the “persons of interest” in the architect’s rape and murder.
The latest person reported to be suddenly gone missing from his home is the man who was first to help the alleged abduction victim, one Dennis Pansan. The abducted Pansan claimed to the barangay captain of Matina Pangi, to whom the victim was brought by the man who first helped him, that some armed men claiming to be from the “authorities” picked him up and wrapped his head with masking tape. He told the barangay captain that he was “tortured.” Still, he was lucky to have escaped from his captors and reached the house of a Matina Pangi resident who took off the masking tape from his head before turning him over to the barangay official.
Last June 2, in an interview with television reporters, the Matina Pangi Kapitan disclosed that some people in his barangay noticed unmarked vehicles apparently “casing” the house of the man who helped Pansan. On the following day, the “good Samaritan” was not anymore seen in his house, and he could no longer be located by the barangay police as well as elements of the regular police force to whom the incident was reported.
According to the barangay captain in his statement to the media, he is apprehensive that the man might have been “abducted” or perhaps purposely abandoned his house for fear of the menacing “visitors.”
Days earlier, another man believed to be one of the five “persons of interest” was also abducted in Calinan, even as one was earlier nabbed by persons who introduced themselves as NBI agents. In a television interview, the NBI confirmed that they indeed arrested the person but claimed he was nabbed during a drug buy-bust operation.
The wife of the arrested man has a different version of the story. She claimed to the media and in a social media post that the agents raided their house and picked her husband up. According to the wife, the raiding team confiscated their mobile phones and warned them not to attempt to record the raid in the video.
One intriguing question, though, is whether or not the perpetrators of the alleged abductions are members of any of our law enforcement units. If they are not, then who could they be, and who are they working for? Or are they the “resurrected” shadowy vigilante group Davao Death Squad (DDS)? Who caused their rise from the grave? And, is their sudden “resurrection” solely to satisfy the demands for quick justice for the rape-slay victim in Calinan?
Unfortunately, it appears that their abductions are done without enough convincing evidence that their victims are indeed among the perpetrators of the rape-slay of the woman architect. In fact, we have learned from sources close to the victim’s family that even the widowed mother of the rape-slay victim is not fully convinced that the abducted individuals were involved in the case.
In other words, we cannot blame some Davaoenos if they suspect that the means these elements of the shadowy group are using to supposedly bring fast justice to the rape-slay victim is a crime as heinous as the one done on the woman architect; perhaps even more.
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Now we know who is the most likely politician Vice President and Education Secretary Sara Duterte was alluding to in his description of him as ‘tambaloslos.”
The proverbial “cat was out of the bag” during former President of the Philippines and Davao City Mayor Rodrigo R. Duterte’s program “Gikan sa Masa Para sa Masa” over Pastor Apollo Quiboloy’s SMNI Channel.
Duterte, the father, said that Inday Sara must have been hurt by the sudden unseating of Pampanga Congresswoman Gloria Macapagal Arroyo as House Senior Deputy Speaker by those who are known close allies of the House Speaker over the alleged plot of launching a House coup d’ etat.
VP Sara is known to have used as her vehicle for the Vice Presidency, the party of the former President.
Of course, we personally have some second thoughts on our assumption. What with the coming together of the former woman President and the House Speaker in a political collaboration that the two concluded with a document signing ceremony?
