Wednesday, December 20, 2006 Cops failed to coordinate with Citom; probe ordered
THE Guadalupe Police Station was made to explain yesterday its failure to coordinate with traffic authorities regarding an accident involving Guadalupe Barangay Captain and Cebu City Councilor Eugenio Faelnar.
Meanwhile, Mayor Tomas Osmeña defended Faelnar against reports he left behind the man he bumped with his Toyota Fortuner last Sunday night.
Osmeña said the issue was “probably blown out of proportion.” Faelnar’s alleged victim, Renante Laurente, is an errand boy of Bobby Solima, whose brother Salvador lost to Faelnar in the 2001 elections.
Acting Cebu City Police Director Melvin Gayotin called up the Guadalupe Police Station yesterday and spoke with Senior Insp. Julio Eder to inquire about the accident, particularly what action they have taken.
Eder reportedly told Gayotin that the accident was not recorded in the police blotter because, as a traffic matter, it should have been investigated by the City Traffic Operations Management (Citom) office.
Police, however, failed to coordinate with Citom.
The Citom only learned about the accident after Laurente of Singson Compound, Guadalupe visited the traffic office on N. Bacalso Ave. at 10 a.m. Monday to file a report about it.
“Dapat unta pag respond nila (police), mi coordinate dayon sa Citom (Ideally, when the police first responded, they should have worked with Citom right away),” Gayotin said.
In his regular press conference yesterday, the mayor said Faelnar “was not aware that there was such a victim.”
Told that Guadalupe policemen seemed to have covered things up by not recording the accident in their blotter, the mayor said he does not know if all incidents ought to be reflected in the blotter.
“The first thing to do is to send him to the hospital (not record the incident),” he said.
Calls to Solima’s cellular phone went unanswered as of press time last night.
“Solima is an arch-enemy of Jingjing (Faelnar). So I think it was probably blown out of proportion,” the mayor said.
Faelnar is an ally of Osmeña. Solima, on the other hand, challenged Faelnar in the 2001 elections and ran for city councilor in the 2004 elections under the line-up of former mayor Alvin Garcia, Osmeña’s political rival.
Laurente alleged that Faelnar bumped him from behind with his Toyota Fortuner while he was heading home after buying bread from a bakery.
He said the impact nearly knocked him unconscious, but Faelnar drove away instead. (JST/RHM)
