It’s about time someone took a stand against Cebu mayor-elect Tomas Osmeña’s unique proposition to wipe out crime in his province.
The Commission on Human Rights in Central Visayas has warned that Osmeña’s offer to give a cash reward of PHP50,000 to anyone who uses a licensed gun to kill a person in the act of committing a crime is “prone to abuses by law enforcers.”
It can also empowers barangay tanods and even civilians to kill or injure criminal elements,” reports Cebu Daily News.
According to CHR7 director Arvin Odron, while LGU heads can offer incentives to fight criminality, Osmeñas scheme is “alarming”.
Osmeña, who is taking over incumbent mayor Michael Rama, this week also said that for wounding criminals, the reward is much lower at PHP5,000.
It’s not the first time that Osmeña — grandson of a former President — has been mired in controversy.
According to Phelim Kine, deputy director at the Asia Division of Human Rights Watch, “he has a troubling history of exhorting summary killings of criminal suspects.”
During a previous tenure as Cebu City mayor in 2005, Osmeña told police: ‘Go ahead, pull the trigger. As mayor, my warning to anybody doing a crime is I will see to it that you’ll be dead on the spot. If we catch you, you will be so sorry — you won’t be around.’ “
Philippine Star reported in 2006 that some 131 people were killed vigilante-style in Cebu since the first victim in Dec 22, 2004. (Osmeña was Cebu mayor from 1988 to 1995 and from 2001 to 2010).
“Most of those killed were known drug personalities and robbers in their respective places of residence, and many had criminal records, with the notoriety of going in and out of the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center,” according to the report.
“The killers have been identified only as men on motorcycles, hiding their faces with masks or helmets, and armed with high-powered handguns.”
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