Security cam failed during doc’s slay

Dr. Jaja Sinolinding —PHOTO
FROM ELVIE CALUB’S FACEBOOK PAGE

COTABATO CITY—Relatives of a slain eye doctor here have expressed alarm over what they described as suspicious malfunctioning of a closed circuit television (CCTV) camera before, during and shortly after his killing on Tuesday.

Police said Dr. Shajid “Jaja” Sinolinding was shot and killed by a lone gunman who pretended to be a patient. Sinolinding was examining another patient at the Cotabato Doctors Clinic when he was attacked before noon. The gunman also shot and killed the doctor’s security escort, Mohammad Esmael.

Dr. Kadil Sinolinding Jr., regional health secretary in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and the victim’s older brother, said the failure of the CCTV to capture the gunman’s face added pain to the grieving family.

“The [footage] was the only way we could identify the assailant,” Kadil said.

He said he was told that all other events inside the clinic were recorded, except those that happened immediately before his 37-year-old brother was killed.

Senior Insp. Alexander de Pedro, city police spokesperson, said the CCTV failed to capture the face of the gunman, nor did it show how the suspect entered the building and proceeded to the victim’s clinic.

De Pedro said the attack happened between 11:10 a.m. and 11:16 a.m. at the second floor of the Cotabato Doctors Clinic on Sinsuat Avenue here, but the CCTV camera stopped recording minutes before the gunman entered the building.

He said the CCTV recording resumed at 11:30 a.m.

De Pedro believed the gunman had an accomplice inside the medical facility. The suspect or his accomplice, he said, must have tinkered with the camera or jammed the transmission signal.

The doctor’s secretary said the suspect went to Sinolinding’s office at 11 a.m., asking to see the doctor.

When told that the clinic was no longer accepting patients since he arrived beyond the cutoff time, the suspect pulled a gun, barged inside and shot Sinolinding.

De Pedro said investigators submitted the footage to the police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

Collateral damage

“Doctor Jaja has no known enemies but we have death threats so he [asked for an] armed security escort,” Kadil said.

He told reporters that an older brother, Prof. Harris Sinolinding, survived an assassin’s bullet in August last year after he exposed alleged corruption in a state college in North Cotabato province.

“My brother Jaja was collateral damage—they threatened to get any of us,” said Kadil, adding he knew who was behind his brother’s death.

The Department of Health (DOH) and the groups Health Alliance for Democracy (Head) and the Cotabato Medical Society condemned the killing, noting Sinolinding was the second doctor murdered in a span of two months.

In March, Dr. Dreyfuss Perlas, a municipal health officer in Lanao del Norte province, was shot and killed while he was on his way home.

“How many more health workers need to die before the [DOH] and this administration stop idling around and start protecting our barrio doctors?” asked Dr. Joseph Carabeo, Head secretary general.

“Every day frontline health personnel are putting their lives on the line to serve their countrymen, but the government repays them with indifference, deaf to the bullets that kill them,” Carabeo said.

“What’s glaring in Dr. Jaja’s case [was] that he already had a security escort. This did not stop him from getting killed,” he added.

Helping poor

Although Sinolinding was engaged in private practice, he was known to provide free eye care services to indigent families in remote villages in North Cotabato before his death.

“The DOH condemns this act of violence as it lost anew a dedicated healthcare worker at a time when there is a dire need for their service,” said Health Secretary Paulyn Ubial in a statement.

“We are deeply saddened by this event, even as we are still awaiting the resolution of the killing of former Doctors to the Barrios’ Dr. Dreyfuss Perlas,” she said.

“We vow to support efforts in the pursuit of justice in this senseless killing,” Ubial said.

Carabeo called on the government and the DOH to hasten the investigations on the deaths of Sinolinding and Perlas.

“The underserved areas have lost much-needed doctors, and that their cases remain unresolved sends a chilling message to health workers all over the country,” he said.

He asked the DOH to assert its role as protector of health workers.

“There have been cases where local governments were involved in the harassment of health workers and professionals. These must be taken more seriously,” Carabeo said. —WITH REPORTS FROM TINA G. SANTOS IN MANILA