An emerging murder capital

Senior Superintendent Royina Garma has a piece of advice to those involved in illegal drugs in Cebu City: Leave the city immediately. But the director of Cebu City Police Office has also warned that those who chose to stay will die.

Garma’s statement came less than 24 hours after the murder of Glenn Mark Manal, a former Lorega-San Miguel barangay councilman. Manal just came from the wake of a friend --who was also killed and police are eyeing illegal drugs as possible angle-when he was shot by unidentified assailant. He was alleged to have been involved in illegal drugs.

Hours before Manal’s killing, Kalunasan barangay councilman Roel Mabano was gunned down in front of the barangay hall by a lone assailant. Mabano, a former policeman, was said to have also been engaged in the drug business.

Beyond illegal drugs, police investigators are also looking into other angles in the two killings. The victims may have gained enemies in the performance of their duties as barangay officials. Or their death may have resulted from business rivalry or personal grudges.

Police have yet to produce a concrete result in their investigation. But many have wondered if Garma’s statement was prompted by those incidents and the one in which four drug personalities managed to escape during a police operation that killed a four-year-old boy, who was hit by a stray bullet.

This is not to say the twin murders have traces that would point to the police, who have long been suspected in the killing of drug suspects in the city. Or, perhaps, they have been the result of a drug deal that went wrong.

Whatever the motives, the killing of Mabano and Manal and the other murders occurring at the height of the government’s anti-drug campaign only validate the belief of many that Cebu City is no longer safe. While extrajudicial killings in Manila have subsided, it seems Cebu is starting to emerge as the country’s murder capital.