Saturday, July 26, 2008 Soc’s son ‘threatens to blow up gas station, waving a firearm’
THE adopted son of Mayor Socrates Fernandez figured again in another controversy, this time at a gas station in Barangay Lawaan I, Talisay City.
Joavan Fernandez reportedly threatened to harm a male attendant and to blow up the whole Petron pump station for the attendant’s refusal to gas up his vehicle around 11 p.m. Thursday.
Mora mo nakame-nos nako rakrakan to mo’g hurot... Paulbohon ko ni inyong Petron (I will shoot you all. I’ll blow up your station),” pump attendant Edward dela Torre, 21, quoted Joavan as saying.
Fearing for their lives, Dela Torre and his colleagues had the threats recorded in the blotter at the Talisay City Police Station at 12:15 a.m.
Preliminary investigation showed that Joavan reportedly got irked after the Petron personnel refused to fill the fuel tank of his SUV – a red Isuzu Trooper Bighorn.
The cashier reportedly directed dela Torre to keep Joavan from gassing up because of his pending fuel bills.
DyRF Radyo Fuerza quoted a reliable source as saying that Joavan’s unpaid bills at Petron had already piled up to P50,000.
The refusal reportedly made Joavan furious that he allegedly whisked out a high-powered firearm, cocked it in front of dela Torre and uttered menacing remarks against Petron.
Reporters tried to get the side of Petron management but its cashier and pump attendant had already kept mum about the incident.
Interviewed separately, Mayor Fernandez refused to believe that Joavan was armed with a high-powered firearm or an assault rifle when he refueled at Petron.
As far as he knew, Fernandez said his adopted son has not been carrying a real firearm as he only has a plastic toy gun.
In 2006, Joavan figured in a criminal case after he was accused of the twin-shooting incidents in Barangays Cansojong and Dumlog.
It killed a jeepney driver and seriously wounded a jeepney conductor and two other teenagers.
However, the trial of the case did not prosper in court as all the witnesses issued affidavits of desistance. This led to the release of Joavan, who was locked up for almost a year, from the city jail.
In last Thursday’s incident, Fernandez blamed partly the Petron cashier, a certain Maymay, for refusing to gas up Joavan’s vehicle, saying he has been a good client at the gas station.
Fernandez admitted he has pending personal bills at Petron because he authorized Joavan to refuel there.
“And the records will show that I’ve been regularly paying our account at Petron,” said Fernandez who personally went to the gas station past 8 a.m.
The mayor said he learned that Joavan got denied because of three pending bills racked up in recent days.
This included the refueling of the multicab of Joavan’s wife, he said.
Meanwhile, Talisay City Police Station Romeo Perigo said he already assigned an investigator to look into the incident.
He said the police will evaluate the testimonies of dela Torre and other witnesses for the filing of a criminal case in court. (GC)
