Ace in the hole

Some house-cleaning would be in order for Task Force Ellah Joy if it hopes to arrest homicide suspect Bella Ruby Santos before the end of the year.

The discovery of a mole within the Criminal Investigation Detection Group (CIDG-7) which spearheads the investigation into the murder of six-year-old Ellah Joy Pique is certainly not good news for the Pique family whose search for justice just experienced a new stumbling block.

That it was uncovered by the victim’s father Renante Pique, who claimed to have sources within the task force speaks something about internal security within the group that was mandated by the Capitol to spare no effort in resolving the murder case before it reaches the one year mark.

With Bella’s partner Ian Charles Griffiths practically free—it would take a government to government request to pin him down which would be next to impossible to secure owing to bureaucracy’s corridors of power—Bella is the only person whom the task force can hope to rein in and bring to trial.

It remains to be seen whether Bella’s CIDG contact is the only one in her payroll, but it’s an injustice to the Pique family to see that the agent who reportedly receives P20,000 in payola to keep the Cebuana native informed about the investigation would only get a slap on the wrist.

We could only hope that the CIDG files charges of obstruction of justice, nay even conspiracy against the agent in question for making the search for Bella Ruby that much more difficult. That agent’s transfer to Mindanao may even work to Bella’s advantage, if she hadn’t moved there already.

Then there’s the nagging question of how many other police/agents are also on the take. Not that Bella’s pockets are that deep but managing to maintain that contact at P20,000 a month means that she may still have Griffiths or some other contact to rely on to keep her out of reach of the authorities.

But while this disclosure is disturbing one questions whether it would do the task force any good. How the task force would go about doing their de-lousing or house cleaning is up to them but it’s critical in order to plug the leaks and ensure that Bella doesn’t get any more info that would allow her to be two steps ahead of them.

It’s not only the Pique family that would be disheartened by this development but many other Cebuanos who may have suffered a similar tragedy and rely, despite tragic real life experiences and stories of inutility, futility and corruption, on the police and other law enforcement agencies to serve them justice.

That these very same authorities experience betrayals or even complicity within their ranks speaks to the need for the public to be vigilant in monitoring and ferreting out corruption within the ranks of the people who were supposed to protect them from predatory criminal elements.