The worst of the fear that we have of Tagbilaran City may have actually come. I want to believe, though, that what happened last Friday afternoon was an isolated case of murder and not part of a sinister plan to make it a new arena for criminals to test their skills and their wits. Late afternoon Friday, a woman was shot dead on a very busy CPG Avenue and Palma St. by a riding –in-tandem assailants who remain unidentified up to press time. This is what we fear will happen in Tagbilaran and other parts of Bohol with the entry of seemingly unabated illegal drug problem. When murderers and drug- crazed persons can perpetrate their trade without fear of the arms of the law, that is the time when law abiding citizens make the sign of the cross and say “Hesus, Hesus!”

When Owen Rosales was killed in an encounter with the police in Bien Unido some months ago and lately, Inday Bono in Ubay, we thought the illegal drug traders had learned their lessons. After all, their high-powered firearms were all recovered and put in safe keeping. Then Tare surprised the Boholanos by showing his skill in marksmanship by fatally shooting PO1 June Ejoc and wounding three other policemen who were trying to verify a reported pot session in a house at Sitio Ubos of Poblacion 1 in Tagbilaran. It was only by sheer luck that the police finally got him when he tried to shoot it out with the police manning a checkpoint in Guindulman town days later.

With the daylight murder in busy CPG Avenue, we now know that there is a good supply of murderers in our midst who have no qualms about ending anyone's life who cross them or the enemy of those who hire them. These cannot be isolated cases anymore. There must be a group of murderers who want to practice their trade at the expense of peaceful Boholanos. Or there must be rival groups of illegal drug traders who want to eliminate each other in order to singly capture the profitable illegal drug market in Bohol. This is the challenge that rests on the collective shoulders of Gov. Edgar M. Chatto, City Mayor Baba Yap, all the municipal mayors, PSSupt Denis Palo Agustin, and the other law enforcing agencies including the military headed in Bohol by Lt. Col. Potenciano Camba.

Unless they can show that they are equal to the job, the well-meaning citizens who cannot allow their families to be without protection might just resort to vigilante activities to keep the criminals out of their streets and communities. I will be very happy to be proven wrong on this. In previous issues of the Agora, I have suggested courses of actions to address the growing problem on illegal drugs. I know many other groups are willing to cooperate whatever measures government will take on the problem if only to make sure that their communities, especially the young can be spared from becoming drug-crazed addicts. Surely the criminals cannot match the resources of government. What may be lacking is the resolve and determination to put an end to these criminal activities. Otherwise, more blood will yet be spilled on the streets, busy or not.