THE ASSASSINATION of Negros Oriental’s Gov. Roel Degamo over the weekend, which followed the separate ambush incidents on Lanao del Sur governor Mamintal Adiong, Datu Montawal mayor Ohto Caumbo Montawal of Maguindanao, Aparri vice mayor Rommel Alameda, and Comelec election officer Haviv Macabangen Maindan should be condemned.
Related or not, the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) may consider the creation of a task force to coordinate and consolidate all the ongoing investigations into the recent ambushes of political, elected leaders.
Negrenses lost a committed public servant to assassins who perpetuate the culture of violence and the proliferation of private armies and illegal firearms on Negros Island which has had a tragic history of assassinations. The assassination of Degamo happened during the scheduled benefits distribution to 4Ps beneficiaries. Governor Degamo was killed while at work serving his constituents.
There are some things we’d like to point out.
One, there should be adequate security measures at all distributions of cash grants to beneficiaries of 4Ps and other ayuda programs. Electronic payments really must be the norm, but there are just too many beneficiaries who are so poor that they do not have access to banking facilities, electronic banking, and good internet signals, especially in the provinces.
Second, the DILG and the Philippine National Police (PNP) should be cautioned against prematurely labeling these ambush cases as isolated incidents. These incidents happened in a span of just several weeks. Though they took place in different and distantly separate locations, there just might be a common thread, element or reasons pointing to why these ambushes are happening now. The precision of how these ambushes were executed strongly indicate significantly high level of training, expertise, and funding.
Third, the Anti-Money Laundering Council and National Bureau of Investigators specializing in financial crimes may consider looking for and follow the money trails. They just might find a pattern or sets of patterns and methods on how the assassination funds are circulated. They could find outliers or unusual deposits and withdrawals in the data on transactions with banks and money transfer outlets. Following the money trail forward and backward could lead the investigators to all the persons involved in these ambushes.
Governor Degamo’s assassination is the latest in a number of targeted attacks on public officials these past several weeks. These should not be regarded outright as isolated incidents. There might be something sinister, some aspects these attacks may have in common.
The PNP, NBI and Department of Justice may assign their best investigators to this case. Those investigators must build the strongest case possible based on the physical evidence at the crime scene, eyewitness accounts, guns and vehicles used, and the money that funded the assassination.
There must definitely be masterminds who ordered and executed the assassinations, related or not. Investigators must not stop at catching the gunmen. They must go all the way up to the masterminds. Foot soldiers always have commanders and commanders always have financiers and masterminds.
Justice must be served.
