Thursday, December 21, 2006 Editorials: Incident involving Faelnar
CEBU City Councilor and Guadalupe Barangay Captain Eugenio "Jingjing" Faelnar said the incident was politically motivated.
Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña said it was probably blown out of proportion.
Both are referring to the car bumping accident Sunday night involving Faelnar and Renante Laurente, reportedly the errand boy of the brother of Salvador Solima, the councilor's bitter political rival in Guadalupe.
And both are obviously trying to downplay the effects of the incident.
Solima's role
The dragging of Solima's name does give some sense to Faelnar and Osmeña's argument, although one has to stretch one's imagination to be able to give it legitimacy.
It's possible to think, for example, that political rivals ordered Laurente to have himself bumped by Faelnar's Toyota Fortuner then made sure the media got wind of it and thus put the barangay captain in a bad light.
But for such a theory to withstand deeper scrutiny it must not simply wallow in the realm of speculation but must be propped up by solid proof.
Blown up?
Unfortunately for Faelnar and Osmeña, what can be gathered so far is that Faelnar did bump Laurente, an accident that the councilor owned up in radio interviews less than a day after it happened.
Faelnar needs to prove Laurente intentionally had himself bumped; lacking that proof then he could not blame his political rivals if they are feasting on the issue for now.
In the meantime, Faelnar and the Guadalupe police should be able to sufficiently explain their actuation after the accident because, aside from the fact that the one involved is a public official, their conduct made the coverage of the incident more interesting.
Misconduct
One can reject for now Laurente's claim that Faelnar even tried to hit him again while he was sprawled on the ground---it could be included in the conspiracy theory.
But did Faelnar really intend to evade responsibility for the incident? (His claim: he did not get out of his vehicle to help Laurente because it was raining.)
And why didn't the Guadalupe police record the incident in the blotter, or coordinate with traffic enforcers or call Faelnar for questioning?
While the public does not want to be fooled into believing in a scheme hatched by Faelnar's political rivals, it also does not want the misconduct of Faelnar and the police, if there are any, brushed aside.
