FRED C. LUMBA SPECKS OF LIFE

Criminal Epidemic And Lawlessness

On. Feb. 19, Vice-Mayor Rommel Alameda of Aparri, Cagayan and five others in his party were also gunned down in a road ambush in Bagabag, Nueva Vizcaya.

Similar to the Degamo killing, the killers, according to news reports, wore military uniforms.

Not to mention the muchhyped assassination of media person Percy Lapid, the recent spate of violence seems to indicate an epidemic of lawlessness and criminality.

While the PNP hierarchy is always inclined to rationalize that these were but isolated cases, the public cannot but think otherwise.

Pinoys may not be as meticulously intelligent and patiently probing as Sherlock Holmes and his partner Dr. Watson but there seems to be no need for the authorities to elaborate as the effort becomes a flimsy defensive mechanism.

Are the dark days of political vendetta, business double cross and mafia-like assassins-for-hire back in our midst?

Senior citizens should remember Moises Padilla, an insignificant guerrila WWII hero who defied a political warlord in Negros Occidental in the fifties.

Despite lacking resources, he braved the odds (and lost), running for mayor of Magallon town in 1951 (which was later named after him).

As news petered out, Padilla was brutally tortured (like in the movies) before he was shot and killed.

Then Defense Sec. Ramon Magsaysay pursued Padilla’s tormentors and eventually nailed down Gov. Rafael Lacson and his cohorts.

(Padilla’s bio was made into an epic movie in 1961 and submitted as the Philippine entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 34th Academy Awards but was not accepted as a nominee.)

Augmentation military and police personnel have now been moved to Neghros Oriental obviously to contain what may blow up to be a tindrbox