Tuesday, August 12, 2008 Cops held 5 friends, not Joavan
IS Joavan Fernandez untouchable in Talisay City?
The son of Talisay Mayor Socrates Fernandez showed up at City Hall yesterday to visit his detained friends who allegedly took part in the snatching and mauling of two vulcanizing shop workers.
Joavan was at the police detention cell despite Talisay City Police Chief Romeo Perigo’s assurance that a team was pursuing him.
When Sun.Star Cebu called up SPO3 Joel Wenceslao, police jail head, for comment, he confirmed Joavan indeed showed up at the facility after lunch or past 1 p.m.
The mayor’s adopted son, he said, even tried to give his friends - Benedict Gabasa, 26, Mark Perez, 24 and three 17-year-old teenagers – cigarettes.
“Ako siya gibadlong nga di na puede diri Van (I told him that was not allowed),” said Wenceslao
When asked why he did not arrest Joavan, Wenceslao said they had no idea they were supposed to arrest him because they never got an order from Perigo.
“Wa mi kahibawo nga dakpon, wa mi kadawat ug order (We did not know he was to be arrested. We never got such an order),” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
Joavan reportedly came out in the open after the media interviewed Perigo and left City Hall past 12 noon.
Emerging from the mayor’s office after the department heads’ Monday meeting, Perigo told reporters they could not locate Joavan.
When Edgar Escalante of ABS-CBN Cebu asked if police had exerted efforts to pursue him, Perigo said: “We cannot find him, all efforts should be done... we will do it. We will wait for the development...”
Meanwhile, the alleged manhandling of victims Winston, 18, and Osbert, 21, both surnamed Abella-na, drew sympathy from the Crusade Against Violence (CAV) and the Anakbayan-Youth Cebu.
CAV Cebu Chairperson Thelma Chiong told dyRF Radio Fuerza that the CAV will assist the Abellanas if they seek legal assistance from them.
Chiong urged the Talisay police to seriously pursue the legal case against Joavan, considering the latter’s previous brushes with the law.
She also called on the victims to stand firm in the legal battle or else nothing would happen again in the latest controversy involving Joavan.
“If the local police will not do something about it, we can ask for assistance and let the higher command file a case,” Chiong said.
For his part, Anakbayan Cebu’s Renil Oliva strongly condemned the manhandling of the two vulcanizing shop laborers, allegedly by Joavan and his friends.
Oliva said they will ask for support from the National Union of People’s Lawyer to support the victims in the legal fight against the suspects.
“Kung di nato tabangan, mahug sa inhustisya kining binuhatan sa anak sa mayor sa Talisay (There will be injustice if we don’t help them.),” he said.
Oliva called on Mayor Fernandez not to cover up the actions of his adopted son, as this has ruined his credibility as a city mayor and active Catholic preacher. (GC)
