Badlands

Spanning 12.4 kilometers, Commonwealth Avenue is a vital thoroughfare in Fairview, Quezon City. It has become a constant scene of motor accidents that often involve madmen driving buses racing to get first crack at commuters, earning it the infamous nickname “Killer Highway” and the dubious distinction of being one of the world’s most dangerous roads (a modest estimate of three to five accidents a day).

Now it’s killers on bikes that are adding to the area’s reputation as the badlands. As pieced together by police investigators, two men on a motorcycle went on a shooting spree between 1:30 and 2:30 a.m. last May 11 on a 300-meter stretch between Commonwealth and Regalado Avenues, killing five people. “These are not even serial killers, they are mad killers. They are monsters,” an aghast police investigator told reporters.

By May 13 the Quezon City police had arrested one of the two suspected “thrill killers.” Alsaid Mindalano was said to have been identified by a witness as the motorcycle driver; he was indicted on May 14 on four counts of murder. Police say the gunman is one Mohammad “Walad” Sandigan, who is at large.

The cops are looking into the possibility that this is not the first time for the suspected thrill killers. A newspaper clipping—of the 2011 beheading of a teenage boy (the body was found, but not the head)—has supposedly been found in Mindalano’s wallet. “We find it odd that he was keeping a newspaper clipping on a teenager who was beheaded in North Fairview. It seems like he considered [the clipping] a trophy,” a police source was reported as saying. Investigators are reportedly examining the possible links of Mindalano and Sandigan to unexplained murders in Fairview, including the separate shootings of a jeepney driver and a car sales executive.

But so controversial is this incident and so crucial is the investigation that the Commission on Human Rights has sent a team of special investigators to ensure the proper treatment of the suspects. One investigator verbalized what many were thinking when he said the CHR team came “to make sure these [suspects] are not fall guys.” Indeed, how can the public be sure that the police are holding the right guy, and are hunting the right gunman? Incredibly, three other men rounded up along with Mindalano were supposedly found with a pistol, two revolvers and two grenades in their possession and have since been charged with illegal possession of firearms, ammunition and explosives. They were charged with drug possession as well, as each supposedly tested positive for drugs upon their arrest.

Nevertheless, the killings were a new peak in Quezon City crime, which has not exactly been mild. From accounts, the victims had no known enemies and had no connections with one another. One was on a motorcycle when killed, another was waiting for a ride home, a couple were also on a motorcycle heading to a drugstore. They were all shot dead with a 9mm pistol. The fifth victim was a male scavenger who was sifting through a pile of garbage when he was gunned down with a .45. His identity is still unknown, and he is not included in the people’s murder complaint against the suspect.

The shooting spree is one more illustration of the perils posed by loose firearms in the metropolis and elsewhere. The estimate of more than 400,000 loose firearms nationwide had led the leadership of the Philippine National Police to launch “Oplan Katok” to track down and confiscate these firearms. There had also been noises made toward stricter gun license requirements. But the brazen Sunday-morning killings are hardly encouraging.

Should we now regard Quezon City, which is incidentally celebrating its diamond jubilee, as not only the reputed car theft capital but also the murder capital? If Mayor Herbert Bautista is not livid over the latest blot on the city’s safety record—such as it is—he should be. It’s unacceptable that one can’t even traverse a busy highway without fearing for one’s life. No one’s safe, not those waiting for a ride home, not even those looking for sustenance in a pile of trash.