Last Sunday, July 7, was “Bloody Sunday,” according to Human Rights Watch

(HRW), following three separate killings in different places that once again
highlighted the breakdown of law and order in the country. The modus: assassination,
by “riding-tandem” gunmen who, as usual, managed to escape afterward.
In Cagayan province, businessman Arnel Agustin was shot dead with a bullet to the
chest as he and his wife were riding in their pickup truck. His wife was left wounded.

In Surigao City, 52-year-old Wenefredo Olofernes, the top member of the Dinagat
provincial legislature, had just finished his morning exercises and was riding his
motorcycle when gunmen shot him in the head at Barangay Luna. His companion
survived unscathed.
In Negros Oriental, 42-year-old Salvador “Bador” Romano was also on a motorcycle
and had just left the Iglesia Filipina Independiente (IFI, or the Philippine Independent
Church) in the town of Majuyod when he was gunned down. An advisor for the Youth
of IFI, Romano was also a volunteer for the human rights group Karapatan.
Three different individuals — a businessman, a political leader and an activist — all
felled on the same day through the same means.
The Duterte administration has time and again said it is serious about investigating
and prosecuting extrajudicial killings on its own, without the pesky prodding of
international observers, such as the HRW, the United Nations and the European
Union.
But what has become harrowingly undeniable is that the bloodbath, whether arising
from police operations or from brazen assassinations by hired killers, continues
unabated across the land.