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Wednesday, June 04, 2003
Cops chase, fire at butchers on truck
By Aledel Gonzales-Cuizon
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
BUTCHERS on board a truck loaded with meat from hogs slaughtered in Cebu City got the fright of their lives yesterday dawn when a police car allegedly chased them on Ouano Ave. in Mandaue City and fired at them.
Nobody was injured, but the butchers likened the incident to the infamous botched operation of National Bureau of Investigation 7 agents last December, when resort employees were seriously hurt after their van was rained with bullets.
The butchers also claimed their meat was confiscated.
Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO) Director Alex Castro defended his men, saying one policeman did pull the trigger, but only because the truck was going to run over him.
Castro said PO1 Isagani Cabanlit fired two warning shots with his M-16 rifle.
Cabanlit was in the middle of the road leading to the abattoir and signaled the truck driver to stop.
The truck nearly hit him, so he fired.
Nelson Pepito, one of the men on board the truck, said they were on their way to the Mandaue City public market when a police car with no warning lights blocked the portion of Ouano Ave. in front of 6R Mercantile.
Nelson’s brother Pablo, who was behind the wheel, swerved to the left and managed to get back on the lane towards Mandaue City.
No signs
Nelson said they didn’t dare stop because the area was dark and there was no signboard informing them of a checkpoint.
Nelson, who was seated at the back of the truck with some companions, shouted at the policemen in the car that they will only get off at the market, where there will be people.
Despite this, he said members of the Special Weapons and Tactics (Swat) remained hot on their trail.
The truck finally stopped at the corner leading to the abattoir, where the butchers claimed Swat men aimed their guns at them.
While they were frisked, the butchers said, the meat was loaded into the van of AVM Bernardo Engineering, private operator of the City-owned modern slaughterhouse in Barangay Labogon.
Nelson said a policeman fired at the truck’s wheels but missed. The butchers kept two empty ammunition shells they found in the scene.
Pablo was forced out of the vehicle and detained.
Security only
Nelson said there were more armed men in plainclothes than uniformed Swat men.
He said that aside from the Swat vehicle and the AVM Bernardo van, there were two other vehicles that arrived when the truck finally stopped.
In a separate interview, Castro said the Swat team—composed of PO2 Joel Arcenal, PO1 Aldrin Sambrano and PO1 Elias Bagasbas—was there only to provide security to members of the Meat Inspection and Monitoring Task Force of the City Government of Mandaue.
He stressed that the task force, not Swat, conducted the checkpoint.
Castro also said the Swat vehicle’s blinker was on, but the truck didn’t stop, forcing them to give chase.
Cabanlit is filing charges against Pablo for attempted homicide and disobedience to a person in authority.
Nelson said yesterday that the meat should not have been confiscated because it had meat inspection certificates.
Not accredited
However, City Veterinarian Daisy Penetrante said the meat came from an unaccredited facility.
Penetrante said meat from hogs slaughtered in Cebu City should be blocked because the facility has no classification.
She cited Executive Order 137, which classifies slaughterhouses and abattoirs as facilities that can supply meat within the municipality or city where it is located, within the country and outside the country.
Urban poor leader Edward Ligas, who is helping the butchers in their fight for the continued operations of the old abattoir in Mandaue City, insists that the confiscation of meat was illegal.
He cited a letter dated July 15, 1997 by then Interior and Local Government undersecretary Manuel San-chez to then Cebu City mayor Alvin Garcia about the latter’s executive order creating a meat inspection task force.
Garcia’s order stated that the task force is authorized to seize and confiscate meat and meat products.
Citing Ynot versus Intermediate Appellate Court (148 SCRA 659), Sanchez said Garcia had no authority to grant such power.
“The confiscation and disposal without prior court hearing is violative of due process for lack of reasonable connection between the means employed and the purpose to be achieved and for being confiscatory,” the court said.
Ligas yesterday said a complaint for abuse of authority and gross misconduct will be filed before the Office of the Ombudsman against Penetrante and Johnny Icalina, Jovencio Mahilum and Nonoy Herarman of the task force.
A damage suit will also be filed against the four because truck owner and meat vendor Roy Guisadio lost about 425 kilos of meat, estimated at P44,000.
Another complaint will be filed against the Swat team for gross misconduct.
(June 4, 2003 issue)
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