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Friday, June 28, 2002
WENCESLAO: Robbery, toothbrush and a ‘Magnificent 7’
By Bong Wencelao
Big news sometimes comes in a bunch. Or at least that was what jolted us last Wednesday with the Metrobank robbery, the killing at the Bagong Buhay Rehabilitation Center (BBRC) and the relief of two top police officials based in Cebu. That happens here but rarely.
The first incident was like a test for the still very acting Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Chief Josephus Angan. If I remember right, Angan’s predecessor, Lani-O Nerez was also given a rousing welcome—a bank robbery—when he was still acting CCPO chief. Mere coincidence?
What makes the robbery on the Metrobank branch at the corner of Gen. Maxilom Ave. and F. Ramos St. noteworthy, however, is not only the amount carted away, which was around P2 million, but also because a security guard was killed. Alejandro Puza left behind a pregnant wife and a child.
And as if to ruin the day further, City Hall officials were all around the robbery site like they were needed there. And they talked like expert crime busters when interviewed by reporters. Nagpapulis-pulis, when the only thing that could qualify them as such would be the circumference of their waistline.
I am familiar with the place where that Metrobank branch is located, which is just across the main entrance of Cebu Midtown Hotel. Pimps, prostis and dispatchers stay near the area in the evening. That means it must have been easy for would-be robbers to study the routine of the guards there.
Meanwhile, it looks like Ruben Ecleo Jr., the “supreme,” or okay, “divine” master of the Philippine Benevolent Missionaries Association (PBMA), is becoming more and more like violence’s twin. What with another killing where his name is again being bandied around.
Ecleo was supposedly attacked by fellow BBRC inmate Avelino Edaño with a toothbrush—no, not to clean his teeth (I still have to hear of a God with bad breath) but to stab him. A responding jail guard then gunned down and killed Edaño, wounding in the process another prisoner.
Now Ecleo does not want to return to his cell, fearing for his life. That, incidentally, was what was argued in the motion filed by Ecleo’s lawyer for the transfer of venue of the hearing of the cases against him: fear for the master’s life. Coincidence? I think there is a need to look deeper into the said incident.
Anyway, here’s one transfer that came as a surprise. I am referring to the order of the National Police Commission to relieve seven senior police officials from their posts. The “Magnificent 7” included Police Regional Office 7 Director Avelino Razon Jr. and Cebu provincial police chief Jose Antonio Salvacion.
I would say the order was a surprise because, save for some issues here and there, there is really no public demand in Cebu for the scalp of Razon and Salvacion.
Politics? Mmm…reminds me that Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña does not really like Razon. Nah, I’m just thinking aloud.
OH, WELL. Got a chance to ride yesterday a passenger jeepney driven by a talkative driver. And what do you know, he talked about PBMA “divine master” Ruben Ecleo Jr. He considered Ecleo fortunate. Why? “Kay kun ganahan siya, ingnon ra man niya ang babaye nga: Abliha ang panty kay moagi ang Ginoo.”
(Send your reactions to bow@sunstar.com.ph) |
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