They’re asking for certain death

Cebu ranks third in the number of drug-related killings, according to a study, and Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña is disappointed. Cebu should have been number one, he said. “If it were not a crime or a sin, I’d do the killings myself.”

The mayor might just get his wish for the top ranking. The study, which was jointly conducted by the Ateneo de Manila University and the De La Salle University, covered only data gathered between May 2016 and September 2017, according to a Cebu Daily News report. There has been a spike in drug-related killings since then especially this year.

It is ironic though that the day after he publicly expressed his wish for death to all drug dealers and protectors, Osmeña’s own former bodyguard was gunned down in neighboring Bohol during a drug bust.

Adonis Dumpit allegedly fired at a team of National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) agents before they could arrest him yesterday morning triggering a shootout. Fifteen packs of shabu were allegedly recovered from his body.

Dumpit held the rank of Senior Police Officer 1 at the time of his death. He was a feared man in Cebu especially by lawless elements because of his no-nonsense approach to crime and criminals. It was this uncompromising attitude that landed him in jail for killing a teenage snatcher.

He was released on bail while his conviction was on appeal and, after that, served Osmeña as his security escort for some time until the PNP recalled him. A SunStar report said he was assigned to Bohol only this month.

Osmeña can expect his critics and political enemies to capitalize on Dumpit’s death to pounce on him. I have seen some derisive remarks against him on the social media already and they were only just warming up. What is sad, and I’m sure this is not lost on the mayor, is that the claim that his ex-bodyguard was a drug personality remains just that – a claim – and that Dumpit can no longer defend himself from it.

Which, I would hasten to add, was the same thing that happened to all the others who have been killed in the drugs war and whose ranks Osmeña wants to swell so that Cebu can finally be number one.

On the other hand, why do people continue to deal in drugs knowing as they do that certain death awaits them? Three hundred eighty-three drug-related killings happened in Cebu during the period covered by the Ateneo-De La Salle study but they did not seem to influence the behavior of the drug merchants.

“The number of persons involved in the illegal drugs trade in Cebu and other parts of Central Visayas is really high,” said the police regional office PIO, Supt. Reyman Tolentin. “So it’s but normal to also have more casualties here.”

In other words, they (the drug lords and their allies and runners) are asking for it.