Missed chance
Hours after the police killed Abu Sayyaf Group member Saad Samad Kiram when he supposedly tried to escape yesterday dawn, the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) 7 announced a probe on what it termed was his “suspicious” death. Reports on the incident are actually sketchy and because Kiram is dead and only the perpetrators are alive to tell the story, the truth may be hard to get.
Kiram was supposed to be the only one among the Abu Sayyaf elements that entered Inabanga, Bohol a few weeks ago who was arrested. Three of his companions were killed in the first clash in Inabanga while four others were killed in nearby Clarin town. The remaining two Abus are still at large.
Actually, considering how limited the information we have of the incident, we can only theorize.
It’s possible Kiram really did what he was supposed to have done. He asked permission to defecate, escaped, was found by his pursuers, fought them and was shot to death. We can say his was an act of desperation. Or he was, to use a Martial Law term, “salvaged,” meaning that he didn’t do what the police claimed he did and was instead summarily executed, with the act made to appear like he escaped and fought with policemen.
If the first theory is true, then there’s no need to dig for motives to kill him. But if he was summarily executed, why would the police do it? That’s one interesting questions some conspiracy theorists are no doubt trying to answer.
One motivation could be in keeping with the “an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth” dictum. When the report that Kiram was killed got circulated on social media, among the quips by netizens was “Mirisi!” We know how ruthless the Abu Sayyaf is to their perceived enemies and captives. Kiram killed and was killed.
But there are those who attach a more sinister reason for the killing, that is, if he was summarily executed. There are, for example, people who question whether Kiram was really the man that the police portrayed him to be. Were there some things that the authorities were trying to hide thus he was killed?
But again, those are mere theories. Whatever was the truth behind the killing, the point is government missed the chance to show that it can be civilized in conducting the war against terrorism.