Have police stopped investigating killings of Bas father and son of Talisay City?

Have the police stopped investigating the murders of Lagtang, Talisay City Councilman Art Stephen Bas and his father, Marc Ferdinand Bas, former Lagtang barangay captain?

This is what the Bas family wants the Senate to find out when it investigates the rash of unsolved murders in Cebu soon.

In an interview on Friday, Nov. 2, a representative of the Bas family who asked not to be named told SunStar Cebu they support the Senate investigation.

He said it will help pinpoint the culprits behind the two murders that were done months apart.

He said the family has not received updates on the police investigations, adding that authorities have stopped looking for leads on the identities of the killers.

He also denied police claims that they have been uncooperative.

“Dili na tinoud. Sige gani mi og follow up. Wala pa man daw lead (That’s not true. We’ve been making follow-ups. But we’ve been told there are no leads),” he told SunStar Cebu.

In a separate interview, Talisay City Police Chief Supt. Marlu Conag said their investigations are still ongoing.

Conag pointed out that the Cebu Provincial Police Office even created a special investigation task group to help solve the cases.

In her Senate Resolution 926, Sen. Grace Poe asked the Senate committees on public order and dangerous drugs and public information and mass media to conduct an inquiry on the killings in Cebu.

Poe initiated the investigation after receiving reports that some police officers reportedly masterminded the killings.

The Senate investigation also has the approval of Pearl Ungab, the widow of slain lawyer and Ronda vice mayor Jonnah John Ungab.

“It is purely a legislative prerogative to conduct those hearings and if these proceedings are necessary to investigate the spate of killings in Cebu City, I do not think there is any reason for me not to support it. Legislative inquiries are one of the duties of our senators and it is about time that they looked into what is happening in Cebu as these are of transcendental importance,” she said.

Last Feb. 19, Jonnah was shot by riding-in-tandem assassins while driving his car outside Qimonda Building-Cebu City Hall of Justice. Pearl was with him at the time.

The lawyer had attended the promulgation of cases faced by his client, self-confessed Eastern Visayas “drug lord” Rolando “Kerwin” Espinosa Jr., before the attack happened.

Jonnah’s uncle, Ronda Mayor Mariano “Nonie” Blanco III, was shot dead by four unidentified gunmen inside his office on the second floor of the Ronda Municipal Hall last Sept. 5.