'BATMAN ESCAPES SLAY ATTEMPT'

By Alex P. Vidal


If reports were true that unidentified gunmen tried to liquidate "Batman" while he was waiting for a ferry boat in the Bacolod pier for a trip back to Iloilo last August 24, our suspicions that "Robin" was murdered because of his activities as "Batman's" sidekick could be correct.
We suspect it was not only "Robin" who was the target of the assailants. Given the right opportunity and proper timing, the triggermen would have succeeded in taking the lights out of both "Batman and Robin" in three days!
"Robin" was killed in E.B. Magalona, Negros Occidental on August 22 after being chased down by two hitmen while riding on his motorbike. Iloilo-based "Batman" went to visit his subaltern's cadaver at the morgue of the Teresita Jalandoni Provincial Hospital in Silay City.


CHARACTERS


Sources said, unidentified characters believed to be cohorts if not the culprits who finished off "Robin" followed "Batman" and spotted him in the Bacolod pier.
"The presence of policemen in the wharf alarmed the gunmen and decided to call off the operation," a source informed us Thursday afternoon.
The source said "Batman" is aware that he is also being followed and probably marked for liquidation by the same characters who murdered his civilian partner "that's why he is very cautious and careful with his movements."
Because of that alleged incident in the Bacolod wharf last Wednesday afternoon, "Batman" must have been convinced already their enemies were determined to annihilate them at all costs.


EVENTS


This latest chronology of events surrounding "Robin's" murder will throw out to the window the insistence of curious observers that a top politician in Iloilo City could be the mastermind, and that "Robin's" murder was purportedly done in Negros "to confuse police investigators."
We refuse to buy this angle, although it is incumbent upon the investigators to seriously consider this possibility for procedural purposes. They could be right in this slightest probability. But based on "Batman's" alleged latest near-fatal brush with would-be assassins, we have become more convinced the entire hullabaloo is handiwork of gangland perpetrators with bad blood against "Batman and Robin."


RECONCILE


It's not hard to reconcile the circumstances of alleged attempt to liquidate "Batman" after "Robin" had been downed only in less than 48 hours. 
If "Robin" had been ordered killed by an Iloilo City politician to even the score for slandering the politician in his blocktime programs, based on theories of those agitating to link the Iloilo City politician to the crime, why would the politician or the politician's mad dogs also run after "Batman" who does not handle political blocktime programs?  
Different angles and theories are being pursued and analyzed both by police probers, friends and relatives of "Robin" as they scramble to put a face in the puzzle and mystery that shroud "Robin's" cruel death.


APPEAL


For the meantime, we appeal to authorities to dig deeper into the angles of "double-cross" and "vengeance over a botched deal." Sources told us the 2009 slay attempt on "Robin" could be connected to his murder last Monday afternoon.
We are not insinuating that "Batman and Robin" are the guilty parties in these brouhaha, but common sense would tell that extreme punishment of death has always been the underworld's logical and final option for those they deemed to be major stumbling blocks in their operations and existence.