CHR Region 7 Director Alejandro Alonzo said there are no available witnesses to help them unmask the perpetrators of the series of killings of convicted and suspected criminals that started in December last year.

But Alonzo said that CHR’s inability to identify the suspects should not be compared with the police’s inability because law-enforcement agencies have all the resources to conduct a thorough investigation.

The police offices have barangay intelligence network and other intelligence units as well as the crime laboratory where the evidence could be confirmed and examined.

"Why can they solve other cases in a short time? Why does it take so long to solve this salvaging? The police have all the resources in their command. They have the intelligence fund to buy information," Alonzo said.

But Acting City Police Director Melvin Gayotin said they actually lack the manpower and equipment in their effort to solve the spate of summary executions in the city. The logistic problem is in addition to the difficulty of finding witnesses and complainants, he said.

At least 30 suspected criminals have already been killed in a summary-execution style that began on Dec. 23, last year, just two days after Mayor Tomas Osmeña announced he was creating a so-called Hunters Team to "seek and destroy" criminals and other notorious characters.

The killings have drawn the condemnation of some officials and leaders, including Cebu Archbishop Ricardo Cardinal Vidal and Vice Mayor Michael Rama.

Some concerned residents believed the gunmen were policemen because the series of killings took place after Osmeña announced that lawmen who could finish off criminals would be rewarded. The police, however, denied involvement in the killings.