Mayor Tomas Osmeña isn’t worried by the rash of killings of suspected criminals in Cebu City. “It’s worse for the city’s image if there are many criminals,” he said in a press conference.

So the recent killings of “criminals”-of previous convicts-don’t give an impression that Cebu City has many criminals?

Mayor Osmeña had admitted he may have created “some sort of influence” when he said in one of his news conferences “to hunt them (criminals) down. All of a sudden, many of them died.”

Meanwhile, Sun.Star Cebu answered critics of its page 1 banner “MURDER CITY” in an editorial today. (Disclosure: I work for this paper.) Some Cebu officials criticized the front page treatment of the latest victim of vigilante killings in Cebu saying it will drive away tourists and investors.

Sun.Star Cebu said the use of the war head (huge types-the kind of letters you use in a headline to announce a war): “was deliberate, to jolt a public already desensitized by the stream of news about the murders and stories of police inability or unwillingness to solve them. Purposeful but not irresponsible.”

The paper said: “Those who resent the use of “Murder City” would rather have the killings continue than taint Cebu’s name. Image, appearance. Tell the world about tourist destinations, advances in communication and technology, boom in business and industry. Don’t show how barbaric we are in enforcing law and order.”