The strange case of retired PNP Major Lito Pirote

DOES anybody really know the whereabouts or what happened to retired police major Lito Pirote? Does anybody really care?

It has been exactly three months today from his disappearance, or as the Philippine National Police a.k.a. PNP would like to call it, his alleged abduction.

Not a word or clue, no ransom note (if he was abducted). No terrorist or kidnap-for-ransom group claimed they snatched him. He simply disappeared from the face of the earth. At least that’s what it appears to be.

His family are at their wit’s end and almost on the brink of despair. It seems there is no end to this nightmare.

One can just imagine the feeling of helplessness his family has to go through every day since his strange disappearance or alleged abduction.

For those who have absolutely no idea what we’re talking about, here here’s some heads up:

Last April 19, Good Friday to be exact, retired PNP Major Lito Pirote was forcibly seized or abducted (I prefer the word “abducted” as it more appropriate) by five heavily armed men while he was at the lobby of Metro Inn Hotel in Bacolod.

They dragged him to a waiting white Toyota Hi-Ace van then sped away and disappeared from the face of the earth.

Since then his family has been knocking on the doors of the PNP, the National Bureau of Investigation or NBI, politicians and just about anybody begging for help to locate their missing father.

So far it seems to no avail. But is it really a hopeless situation and we just file the seemingly unsolved abduction into the dustbin of unpleasant memories we wish to forget?

Not really, says Brigadier General John Bulalacao, soon to retire director of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6).

Excerpts from the June 17, 2019 issue of Panay News:

Probe on retired Bacolod cop’s abduction ongoing

The investigation into the alleged abduction of retired policeman Major Lito Pirote last April is ongoing.

Brigadier General John Bulalacao, director of the Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6), said a special investigation task group has been formed to solve the case.

“Iyon nga lang, wala pa mag-volunteer o wala pa kaming nakuhang ebidensiya that will prove the theory being pursued by our investigators,” he said.

Bulalacao noted despite reports of Pirote’s alleged involvement in illegal drug trade, the investigation is not just focusing on that angle, but also on his personal engagements.

“We should dig deeper into it. We should find out what really happened. We should identify who the perpetrators are,” he reiterated.

On Wednesday, Pirote’s 24-year-old daughter Cate said they have not yet received any update on the police investigation almost two months after her father was abducted.

She showed flyers with her father’s photo printed with the words: “Please help us find our Papa.”

“My instruction to solve the case stands. I cannot pressure our investigators, especially the city police director because it’s really hard to gather pieces of evidence on the angles they are pursuing,” Bulalacao stressed.

Pirote was among those charged by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency before the Department of Justice for alleged involvement in the smuggling of magnetic lifters found to contain billions of pesos worth of illegal drugs at the Manila International Container Port in December 2018.

The case filed against Pirote was dismissed last April 8 for lack of probable cause.

Well and good. In fact the PNP should not leave any stone unturned and double if not triple its effort in solving this strange abduction. After all, Pirote is one of their own.

It seems ironic, perhaps a cruel joke or a cruel twist of fate, that retired PNP Major Lito Pirote should be abducted on a Good Friday, traditionally the holiest of all the Catholic faith’s holidays as it is the day of the passion, suffering and death of Jesus Christ.

Now I’m not saying there is some kind of parallel between Jesus Christ and Lito Pirote; there is no resemblance whatsoever, quite far from it, neither any religious significance is there.

What I’m saying is that Good Friday for Catholics marks the day of the suffering, passion and death of Jesus Christ while for retired PNP Major Lito Pirote and his family it also marks the beginning of their three months and ongoing suffering. At least for Jesus Christ his suffering ended at 3 p.m. of Good Friday.

Jesus Christ has already resurrected yet retired PNP Major Lito Pirote and his family are still in agony and suffering today with almost no deliverance in sight.

For all we know it was aliens that abducted Pirote, that white Toyota Hi-Ace probably morphed into a UFO and they took him to Mars or maybe Uranus hence his disappearance from the face of the earth./PN

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