Thursday, September 04, 2008 Police task force looking into report attack on Joavan was linked to drugs
A PROVINCIAL task force against illegal drugs is verifying reports the attack on Joavan Fernandez in Tanke, Talisay City on Tuesday night was related to drugs.
Joavan, son of Talisay City Mayor Socrates Fernandez, was attacked with a bolo by Randy Bazar. Joavan was talking to mango vendor Nenita Amagos in Sitio Magay, Barangay Tanke when he was assaulted.
Reports alleged that Joavan got angry when he was spurned when he asked for free shabu. A Sun.Star Superbalita source, who asked not to be named, alleged that Joavan goes to Tanke to ask for the illegal drug.
PO2 Harrison Quiñanola, the homicide investigator, said the first alarm they received was for a stabbing incident. Joavan suffered only a point mark on the left side of his body during the attack.
Affected
Supt. Erson Digal, Provincial Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Task Force (Paidsotf) commander and provincial police deputy director for operations, said his office is still verifying a report the attack was drug-related.
Digal, however, confirmed Tanke is considered one of the barangays in the province affected by illegal drugs. He likened Barangay Tanke to Barangays Ermita and Pasil in Cebu City, where illegal drugs proliferate.
He said Paidsotf and the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency are working together to go after illegal drug traders in Talisay and other areas of the province.
Rep. Eduardo Gullas (Cebu, 1st district) earlier urged Mayor Fernandez to have Joavan undergo rehabilitation.
Meanwhile, apart from denying he mauled two young men, Joavan also denied allegations he stole a TV set and a DVD player from a vulcanizing shop in Tabunok, Talisay City.
Guarantee
He said vulcanizing shop owner Mercedita Abellana allowed him to take the appliances as guarantee for the missing spare tire of his father, Mayor Fernandez.
In his 11-page counter-affidavit, Joavan said that Mercedita allowed him to take the items, owned by relative Jimmy Abellana, after he demanded payment for the lost tire last Aug. 9. This took place past 2 a.m.
“I could take them in the meantime as guarantee for the payment of the stolen spare tire,” he said in an affidavit prepared by lawyer George Bragat.
Mercedita earlier said the tire was not sold, as claimed by Joavan, because it was taken by robbers that broke into her shop last Aug. 6.
Despite her explanation, Joavan reportedly continued to nag her and forced her to pay the price of the lost tire.
The young Fernandez beat the 10-day deadline last Monday to submit his replies to two separate criminal charges at the City Prosecutor’s Office.
Joavan, along with five co-respondents, stands accused of two counts of serious illegal detention, physical injuries and grave threats for allegedly mauling Mercedita’s
nephews – Winston, 18 and Osbert, 21.
Joavan also faces a separate robbery case for allegedly taking away from the shop a Sanyo 21-inch color TV worth P12,000 and a DVD player worth P2,000.
But Joavan said it was upon Mercedita’s order that Osbert accompanied him and his companion, Kashmir Dela Cuesta, to the shop to get the TV set and DVD player.
Concerned
Joavan said it was Osbert who took the items and brought these to his vehicle, where he and dela Cuesta were waiting.
Joavan said he went to the shop the next day, past 9 p.m., after Mercedita and Jimmy, Winston’s father, failed to fulfill their promise to pay for the “stolen spare tire.”
Joavan said he was concerned about the missing tire because if this could not be recovered, replaced or paid for, “my father...might again be in deep trouble because his political detractors in Talisay City, Cebu would always find fault in him.”
Out of frustration, Joavan reportedly grabbed Winston and Osbert and brought them outside his house in Sitio 8th St., Lower Mansueto, Barangay Bulacao, Talisay City.
There, Joavan and five other people reportedly took turns in beating them up and threatening them with summary execution.
They said Joavan hogtied them and pistol-whipped their foreheads and backs. The arrival of policemen and tanods saved them from further harm.
Except for Joavan, his five co-accused were arrested and detained.
Despite this, the five detainees, two of them minors, as well as tanod Vicente Rabaya and neighbor Maya Mabunay, executed separate affidavits clearing Joavan of any liability.
Joavan, in the same affidavit, denied that he forcibly took the cousins, saying they voluntarily came with him, “one after the other.”
He said Winston was badly mauled as he was mistaken for a thief after trying to run away from him.
Joavan said he was not the instigator of the attack, but rather the savior of the two cousins. (GC/JST/With reports from DRT of Sun.Star Superbalita)
