Inquirer headline: “GUNMAN IN LAPID SLAY GETS 16 YEARS IN PRISON.” A clarification on the news: “the suspected mastermind and ex-BuCor Chief Gerald Bantag is still in hiding.” This simply means the real and perhaps the key mastermind may still be unknown, or at least, for some reason, not named by the mainstream media.
Speculations in social media have been rife, given the reputation of the murder victim, radioman Percival ‘Percy Lapid’ Mabasa. He was a popular and well-known critic of the administration policies and programs of VP Sara Duterte’s father, former President Rodrigo Roa Duterte. People could not help asking “If ex-BuCor Chief Gerald Bantag is just ‘the suspected mastermind,’ then who’s the real and key mastermind?” Newsmen themselves can only speculate in silence, and report what they can gather from recognized official sources.
Such news involving public officials under controversial or questionable circumstances somehow end up as subjects of the rumor mill. And more often than not the public personalities in the center of such rumors are helpless as people may think of them as probably guilty. Sooner or later, the truth somehow will be brought out, as the police are expected by the public to seriously do its job of investigation to find the truth. What often happens, however, is that the PNP is often mentioned in the news as still doing their investigation, and people monitoring any development on the case are left with no choice but to wait, and wait, and wait. The assassination of Percy Lapid, it should be noted, was way back last October 3, 2022.
With all the killings reported (more than 30,000 EJKs) from the time the former president took over in 2016, or even way back when he was Davao City mayor, how has the PNP done its investigations, found the real killers, and has pinpointed the masterminds, if any? And as illegal and criminal cases should be concluded and resolved by the enforcement agency, the PNP as “Protector of the People,” what is its track record?
Indeed, it is only right for the people to expect their hard-earned money given as taxes to government, and paid as salaries and allowances to public officials and employees, to be legitimately spent for their benefit as citizens. So, has the PNP meticulously done its mandate and basic job as the main frontliner in the enforcement of laws, particularly in murder cases, where the masterminds, if any, should be found and made principally to account for the crimes committed? With the sentencing of Percy Lapid’s killer, has the PNP done a thorough investigation and found, not only the “suspected mastermind,” but the “real mastermind”?
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