Notes on Leonardo Co's Murder

This murder is a useless waste, and another one for the books, too. With all due respect to researchers and scientists doing field work, they should involve local government units in their endeavors, first by seeking permission from LGUs to do research in their jurisdictions, and second, by asking assistance from local government agencies to provide security. At the stage of inception of any research work, the LGU concerned should already prohibit field research if the area concerned is infested by rebels or if it is a warfront between armed protagonists.

At this juncture, misgivings about the Agham research group could be commonplace as it is imbued with some political color, taking into consideration the fact that Agham is a party-list political aggrupation. On the one hand, if the Agham group is doing research for Energy Development Corporation, what has it to do with research on taxonomy in Kananga, a research which was what the late Leonard Co and company were allegedly conducting when they were killed in the alleged crossfire between government forces and the New People’s Army?  Taxonomy is the science that deals with description, identification, naming and classifying of organisms.

On the other hand, it is unfair to surmise that Agham and taxonomist Co are somehow having illicit connections with the NPA or that they could be working clandestine on the side of the government forces, all under the veil of scientific research work. These presumptions could have been eliminated at the first instance when Agham researchers and scientists properly secured permission from the local government of Kananga, Leyte.

Now, Anakpawis party-list Representative Rafael Mariano has filed House Resolution 653 for a probe into Co’s death, contrary to a neutral civilian investigation that Agham is asking for.  As usual, cases such as these are gifts to Representatives who are very eager to embark on new causes of action in Congress for their own personal grandstanding. Suddenly a simple case of police matter becomes high profile, giving us the impression that Congress has judicial powers to resolve criminal cases and further deepening innuendos that ordinary courts have lost their judicial ascendancy and functions to decide on legal matters.  At the least, Filipino taxpayers are again at the losing end in terms of time and effort being expended by legislators to inquire into criminal events which are not the primordial concerns of Congress.  This is just another case that is being added to the already piling legislative inquiries that have no clear end in sight.