Latest Sorsogon killing
I condemn the latest extrajudicial execution in Sorsogon and held the Philippine National Police responsible for it.
A police report says William Jeruz, 44, of San Juan, Sorsogon City, was shot at close range by a lone gunman on a motorcycle early Monday morning. The victim had just emerged from an eatery owned by a cousin of his only a few meters away from city hall.
The crime is especially repulsive in that the victim was killed in front of one of his two children. The police should exert all efforts to identify and lock up these cold-blooded killers who have been terrorizing the whole province. That is, if they have any sense of responsibility at all.
Jeruz is the 49th victim of summary execution in the region and the 63rd KMP leader killed nationwide. There are now 843 victims of extrajudicial killings.
The victim was an organizer of Samahan ng Mga Magbubukid sa Sorsogon (SAMASOR), a provincial chapter of Kilusang Magbubukid ng Pilipinas (KMP). He was to attend the National Coconut Farmers Convention at the University of the Philippines in Diliman the day he was killed but begged off at the last minute because of lack of fare money.
In a previous blog, I have also denounced the police for their failure to arrest the killer of Federico Esclares Jr., president of Association of Barangay Captains. The barangay official, along with his driver and another hand, had been shot by a lone gunman, who remains at large up to the present.
In that blog entry, I demanded the relief of Provincial Director Joel Regondola and Regional Director Ricardo Padilla.
The bloodied tracks of the killers lead to the doorstep of the police, in a manner of speaking. I refuse to believe that the security forces have something to do with the crimes, but the fact that no suspects have been arrested makes that conclusion inevitable,
For so long now people in the countryside have been living in constant fear. The police should hang its head in shame for its failure to end the reign of terror.
There is no doubt that assassins in the employ of certain elements of the police and the military carry out the assassinations. The only question on people’s minds is whether the administration sanctions the crimes.
If it does not, now is the time to prove it. It must identify and arrest the killers so that we can have peace at last.
