bank robbery – marichulambino.com

(Update: Following the good example of ABS-CBN News which pixelized the entire body of the fatalities, i increased the pixelized space here to half-body without subtracting too much information from the photos. The general rule is that the face of a dead person should not be zoomed in; if it is shown, the shot of the entire body should be a long shot; or only the feet of the dead person can be zoomed in; so i thought my original pixels were sufficient. In CNN, an international news organization, dead bodies are not shown at all, including those of the big floods)

I was going to the bank at 1pm today to transfer an account because someone had put money in there when it should have been in another account, then i saw the gas meter and it was running low, the distance to the bank was the same as that to the gas station and i debated with myself whether to go there first then the gas station but since i had other errands after the bank, i thought it was more efficient to go to the gas station first, at about that moment that i made the turn to go to the gas station, there was, according to eyewitness accounts, at a little past 1pm, a shoot- out at that bank, Veterans’ Bank U.P. Branch, three security guards were shot dead, i arrived there 30 minutes later and here are the photos i took: (i exercised restraint and pixelized some of them because they were too grisly):

Pixelizing updated. (if still too grisly and i receive complaints i can filter the tone to make it black and white.)

I usually get gasoline before the weekend because gas prices hiked in the past over the weekend. I’m usually not empty Mondays. I wasn’t able to fill up gasoline last Saturday because i had an unplanned, impulsive lunch with Joji and Tina last Saturday that lasted until 3pm because of Tina’s stories about China, and other places, i got sleepy and didn’t go out anymore and too lazy to drive to

the gas station. And that’s why my gas meter was low this Monday, i made that turn away from the bank at 1pm today, i’m alive this afternoon.

(it’s a dangerous country to live in). (to be continued: my notes on the crime scene and the bank robbery and more photos)

Photo by Raymond Gehman, National Geographic Collection. A hunter butchers a bull moose that will feed his family. Used here for educational, non-commercial purposes, free service by blog-use of image provided by and from www.allposters.com

What about the “rights of victims” ?

When a crime is committed, we are all victims; and while those who have lost their loved ones to violent crimes suffer the most, all of us are at peril of suffering the same fate as long as those criminals are not identified and not put away. Society, not just the kin of those who had been killed, has an interest in seeing that justice is done.

What does a “shoot-to-kill” “order” from the DOJ secretary (a feeble attempt at a Clint-Eastwood) of the robbers and murderers of the RCBC heist accomplish? As if. As if that kind of talk makes him look tough. If such was an order, even if implied; and was carried out or is being carried out, the person who gave the order can be prosecuted for murder as a principal by inducement. At the very least, it is a signal or message from the DOJ secretary that he would look the other way when the police “RCBC Task Force” deems it fit to shoot at suspects on sight.

What does shooting and killing of suspected members of criminal syndicates accomplish? As everyone knows, it is illegal and punished as murder. But what about the “rights of victims” to see that justice is done?

Shooting of the criminal suspects will not necessarily lead you to the real criminals and will certainly not lead you to the mastermind, their accomplices, their accessories. How does it serve the “rights of victims” if those who are responsible for the crime are never identified? How does it serve the “rights of victims” if more bodies pile up, and we’ll never know who they really were or what they did? What does it serve the rights of victims if we cannot get the masterminds, accomplices, and accessories such as: those who gave the RCBC robbers information on the amount of money in the bank; those who gave them information on the busted security cameras and the busted alarm system; those who gave them information on the number of security guards, their weapons, number of employees, on the locks, etc. Those who conducted surveillance and acted as lookout. Those who provided them with cars, high-powered firearms, safehouses, communication facilities, food, logistics. Those who hid the money and laundered/ will launder it.

But what about if you were certain that they were the criminals who killed your loved ones? Dapat nga silang barilin! (they should really be shot!), said one radio commentator. As if. As if that kind of talk makes one seem indignant enough. If we do away with courts, let’s all wear firearms and shoot it out everyday. We shoot them, they shoot our children, we shoot their children and spouses, they shoot all our next of kin. And now, we don’t even need to be hypothetical because even the police said those killed in the so-called “shoot-out” were not related to the RCBC bank heist and murders.

In the minds of the police, there is method in their madness: by killing suspected gang members, they are rattling whatever criminal gangs they could get their hands on so that one group would snitch on the other group just to get the heat off them; or, the police by rattling the criminal gangs, could get some chatter and movements that they could watch and trace.

As of this writing, the police have disclosed that they were on the verge of identifying the RCBC robbers-murderers, and that two of the suspects are “men-in-uniform”, but without identifying the unit.

Really? Being based on “intel reports” and later on, “forced confessions” of “suspects” (statements made under torture) how much of that evidence would be admissible in court?

The “rights of victims” are violated twice over when the real criminals walk free; we all become victims when we encourage amd tolerate summary executions as if it were a hallmark of heroism or courage; and all of us are present and future victims of the DOJ secretary’s “shoot-to-kill” “order”.