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For a while there, we thought Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña was joking when he suggested that the robbery-slay of a 14-year-old altar boy happened because of police were suddenly ?timid?.
He said the police got ?cold feet? after the detention of SPO1 Adonis Dumpit, who is facing murder charges for shooting dead a teenage robbery suspect.
The mayor blamed the Ombudsman for taking an eternity to solve graft cases but was quick on the draw to defend loyal police officers like Dumpit.
The mayor also challenged human rights groups and the media to denounce the altar boy?s murder instead of defending crime suspects at the expense of law enforcers doing their job, even if they go overboard.
?We have a demoralized police department. Don?t expect them to act the way they acted before. I am also demoralized,? the mayor said.
Well, the mayor?s lament about foot-dragging cops didn?t materialize in this recent killing.
And his dare for libertarian groups to get worked up about the teenage victim isn?t necessary either.
Someone would have to be apathetic or twisted not to condemn the barangay Guadalupe murder of 14-year-old Carlo Mangitngit, whose life was snuffed by motorcycle robbers interested in his P500 cell phone.
But the public is weary of words; they expect action by law enforcers whose job it is to keep the streets safe for citizens.
The gunman and two other suspects were finally arrested yesterday by city police, proof that they are not paralyzed by low morale.
In fact, they?ve shown that a crime can be speedily solved, especially if it happens in the barangay which the mayor calls home.
Excessive zeal in the likes of SPO1 Dumpit shouldn?t blur the lines of what is the duty of a law enforcer.
Doing one?s job ? as seen in the prompt arrest of suspects in the killing of young Mangitngit ? and bringing them to justice alive is the kind of performance worth commending.
