By ERWIN ‘AMBO’ DELILAN
COLONEL JOERESTY Coronica, top boss of the Bacolod City Police Office (BCPO), has a tedious job to carry through: solve the 13 killings in the city since January to date.
Can he? I doubt it.
Coronica, in an interview by yours truly, stressed he is not God who can create miracles anytime.
But being the city police director, he has no choice but to succumb to the order of Mayor Albee Benitez to solve these 13 killings if possible.
Though 12 of these unresolved murders happened when he was not yet the BCPO director, Coronica must find ways find possible resolutions.
Quite unusual in Bacolod that every month there are unsolved killings. Yes, puzzling. But the very question is, what is the message behind these 13 mysterious murders in the “City of Smiles”?
CASH REWARD SYSTEM
Mayor Albee is bothered by these unsolved killings. They “uglify” his administration.
His spokesman, Atty. Caesar Distrito, last week announced that the mayor is shelling out cash rewards from his own pocket to whoever could help solve any of these cases. A bounty of P20,000 to P50,000 are up for grabs.
Question: Can P20,000 or even P50,000 entice witnesses to headline himself or herself in court, considering that they will be risking their lives?
8-MAN COMMITTEE
In compliance to what the mayor wants, Coronica immediately formed an eight-man committee that will handle this tedious task of solving the mysterious murders.
The committee, still to be led by Coronica, will include the BCPO attorney, two deputy directors and four unit chiefs from intelligence, operations, community affairs and investigation. They’re called the “Quad Squad”.
BCPO’s City Intelligence and Detection Management Unit (CIDMU) will take care of witnesses, including the confidentiality and their security.
Well, for your information, the 13 unresolved deaths were of John Paul Montaño and Christopher Mondejar (January 25), Jefferson Diane (February 8), Medelyn Benignos (February 13), a call center agent with name withheld (February 24), Benjoe San Jose (March 24), Jay-R Gamboa (April 29) , Benjie Fajardo (June 1), Niño Baldevia (July 10), Joemarie Villapana (July 14), a 12-year-old boy with special needs (July 13), Gregg Alvin Gelito (July 16), and Pearl Joy Galve (August 14)
CRIME-FREE
Throwback: Mayor Albee, upon his assumption to office on June 30, 2022 as a tyro mayor of Bacolod, promised to bring the city to the next-level – crime free and shabu-free leading to making it a “Super City”. A dream indeed.
But after exactly 26 months in office, the mayor’s dream seems to be elusive still. The killings remain unabated.
Worse, shabu trading in Bacolod proliferates almost beyond control.
The John Philip Dellomo case with P41.3-milion shabu haul in a single arrest on August 13 was historic in Western Visayas. Police were even stunned by such a volume.
Shabu therefore continues to be a lucrative business in the city – a fact hard to dispute.
LIKE ‘CHASING TWO RABBITS’
Dreaming of a crime-free and shabu-free city is like “chasing two rabbits”.
A Russian proverb says that in chasing two rabbits, you will not catch either one.
Coronica, at the start of his tedious mission, emphasized that he is not God, a sort reminder to the public not to “over hope”.
Nice aviso, but qhat will happen to the unsolved killings in Bacolod?
Ilubong na lamang sa limot?
Sad!/PN
