The killing of Clarin town Mayor David Navarro in Cebu City—executed in broad daylight while he was in police custody—is emblematic of so much that is wrong with our politics and system of justice.
Navarro was gunned down as he was being transported by the police to the Cebu City Prosecutor’s Office at past 2 p.m. on Oct. 25.
At least four masked men, carrying high-powered firearms, reportedly dragged Navarro from the police car and fired at him along M. Velez Street in Barangay Guadalupe, Cebu City.
Although President Rodrigo Duterte had put Navarro on his list of narco-politicians who were allegedly involved in the illegal drug trade before the May elections this year, the President’s spokesman denounced the killing.
“We condemn that. We don’t want people to be killed as if they are dogs, chickens, or pigs,” Presidential Spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a radio interview.
“Our citizens should not be ambushed or killed. Whether they are allegedly involved in illegal drugs or wanted criminals, it should go under the process of law,” Panelo said.
“Whether they are connected with drugs, we will not allow killings on roads. That is not the law that we follow,” he added.
The words belie the stark reality that at least 12 mayors and seven vice mayors—linked by the President to illegal drugs—have been killed since Duterte took office in 2016.
Amid speculation of vigilante justice, Panelo offered his own novel theory.
“It means that if those mayors were involved in illegal drugs, then they are now killing each other,” he said.
That Navarro was executed while in police custody suggests either utter incompetence or complicity on the part of the police who were escorting the mayor.
Tellingly, President Duterte on Monday told the police to stop their probe and to let the National Bureau of Investigation take over, hardly a vote of confidence.
Finally, it should be pointed out that Navarro’s killing happened a day after the mayor was arrested by police for allegedly mauling a masseur in Cebu City.
The mayor, witnesses said, was drunk and upset that the massage parlor he visited did not have a female therapist available and berated the cashier.
Then, as CCTV footage showed, the mayor grabbed the masseur who had come to the aid of the cashier, and began punching him while he was being held down by his security aides.
When asked by reporters why he punched the masseur, Navarro said in Cebuano, “He started it. He insulted me.”
The reply betrayed both arrogance and stupidity, a deadly combination of traits all too common among our local chief executives, who often act as petty tyrants when they are accompanied by their security goons. None of this means they deserve to be shot down on the streets, of course. Even the President knows this.