Finally, justice for Cano Tan-3

By Modesto P. Sa-onoy

Last week I mentioned that during his press conference, Cano Guapo Tan said “there are people who are envious of my successes and did not want a poor boy from Dawis to prosper.”

In his conclusion of a rapid “investigation” of the ambush of Cano Tan and his wife, then Bacolod police Chief Colonel Henry Biñas who took over the BCPO on January 12, 2019, said that the motive behind the ambush was business rivalry. He did not elaborate or explain where his conclusion came from, thus his words can best be described as speculation for lack of any evidence.

People are therefore left with a suspicion that the reason for the ambush was the allegation that Cano is a drug lord. Indeed this suspicion was bolstered by the fact that the Duterte government was conducting killing operations of alleged drug lords or financiers and even pushers and peddlers. The series of killings was quickly attributed to the charge of extra-judicial killings.

As also cited, the President was probably fed with wrong information about Cano that he mentioned this “fact” before a Bacolod crowd at a birthday party.

Now that the law enforcement agencies had cleared Cano Tan of the allegations, and in fact, there is no shred of evidence that he was connected with any illegal drug operations, the question remains: who perpetrated that crime? Who carried out the operations since the police have no record of his involvement? Why did not the police pursue an investigation of a criminal act?

It would seem that the perpetrators of the ambush will never be found. Indeed how can it be solved when the police had closed the case? In fact, Cano has taken a philosophical stand on this attempt on his life. He would move on and leave the perpetrators to answer before Divine Justice. Murder or attempt to kill is a crime that cries to Heaven for vengeance. “Vengeance is mine, said the Lord, and I will repay.”

He was grateful to God for saving him and Nita from the assassins’ bullets but as a true Christian, he could not dwell on this dreadful moment of his life. Otherwise, he would be rendered impotent, gripped by fear every moment of his life. He had the courage to leave this part to God. He did what was needed to be done – getting the police to clear his name.

Securing the clearance was not easy. As he told the press, there are several government agencies involved and each had to clear him and the collated responses of these agencies went into the certification.

But the danger to his life remains – those who wanted him dead are still out there. Perhaps they made a mistake, but perhaps they are still intent to do him harm if indeed the police theory of business envy is the reason for this attempt.

In his statement, Cano did not ignore this possibility though he merely insinuated it – some people are envious of his success. But is that sufficient reason enough to kill? What or whose business has been adversely affected by Cano’s successes? Are his auto parts businesses seriously disadvantageous to others? Or is it the booming Campuestohan Highland Resort that looms large in the tourism business in Western Visayas? But then, whose tourism establishment could be affected?

There was rumored that the planned zoo close to Campuestohan Highland resort suffered many legal obstacles, among the most important is the refusal of the Barangay Alangilan to issue a certification of no objection. There was the questionable sale of the land for the zoo because the lot was covered by the agrarian reform law. But these obstacles are not under the control of Cano. Indeed even after Cano has left the scene, the zoo project failed to materialize.

Moreover, the owners were tied up in their own problems that even led to another ambush. Whatever happened to that incident, we don’t know anymore. No news is good news – we hope. The conflicting parties must have resolved their differences.

There are other angles that the “analysts” in Bacolod discussed but this suspicion was squashed from the start and yet, the possibility is high.

Continued tomorrow.