House Deputy Speaker and Manila 6th District Rep. Bienvenido “Benny” Abante on Thursday, March 18 dared police authorities to put back law and order in the country even as another murder, this time victimizing a pastor, added to the rising statistics of violence in the Visayas province.
Pastor Rev. Dioscoro “Jet” Tan Jr. was slain over a week after the ambush-slaying of Calbayog City Mayor Rolando Aquino.
Abante said Tan, chairman of the Region 8 Conservative Baptist Association of the Philippines, was shot dead by an unidentified gunman while he was walking around the community of Tagapu-an Samar on Thursday morning.
Abante decried the murder as part of the “unabated waves of brutality, bullets and bloodshed that have plagued the nation in recent months.”
"The senseless deaths by themselves are tragic; but another tragedy is how our people are possibly becoming inured and desensitized to all these killings,” Abante said in a statement.
He appealed to authorities to “work to put an end to these killings”, stressing that the call in these times of coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic is “heal, heal, heal.”
"And the first step to healing for the families of the slain is justice; those responsible for these murders must be caught, tried, and convicted."
Police statistics have revealed that killings have remained unabated despite the COVID-19 situation.
Majority of the murders were committed by motorcycle-riding gunmen. Crime solution, on the other hand, remained at all time low.
Senator Richard Gordon noted that notwithstanding the unsolved riding-in-tandem deaths, the Land Transportation has not taken any action to implement the law requiring the change in motorcycle plates to bigger and more readable ones.
Meanwhile, in a statement, the CBAP demanded the immediate arrest of Tan’s killer.
"Pastor Jet was a faithful worker of the Lord; a man of the Lord serving as Head pastor of Forever Praise Evangelical Church in the Philippines. We, the CBAP, condemn the killing of innocent lives in the strongest terms,” the CBAP said.
The statement further read: "We call for justice for Pastor Jet Tan. We pray that the gunmen would be identified, arrested, and that they would come to the saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus who is righteous, just, and gracious. Please join us in praying for Pastor Jet's family and the church community in Tagapul-an, Samar.”