Monday, January 05, 2009 Mongaya: Pepper spray on New Year’s Day By Anol Mongaya
THE vehicle of a young Chinese-Fili-pinobusinessman slowed down as they negotiated the still rough side street of the new Banilad overpass. He was with his wife, eight-year-old kid, the yaya and brother-in-law on their way home at the Maria Luisa Subdivision from a New Year’s Eve party. It was already past 3 am.
Suddenly, another vehicle behind them began to incessantly blow its horn. The driver of the second vehicle was apparently so impatient to overtake that he forgot basic road courtesy. To stop the rude beeping, the first vehicle gave way though the passengers of the first vehicle could not help but shout “bastos!”
The passengers of the second vehicle could not have heard the shout because the windows of both air-conditioned vehicles were closed tight. The rude driver turned left and sped towards the gate of Maria Luisa. Suddenly, the vehicle stopped in an angle that blocked the way of the first vehicle. A woman alighted, approached the second vehicle when it stopped, and angrily shouted at the passengers to get out. As this developed, the driver of the vehicle—a muscular six-foot tall man—followed her.
When the wife of the Filipino-Chinese businessman along with the child, yaya, and brother-in-law got out, the man suddenly brought out a canister of pepper spray. After he emptied its contents on them, the man and woman rushed back to the vehicle and drove in a hurry towards the subdivision.
The wife and the brother-in-law immediately fell on the road blinded with their faces, hands and arms suddenly in pain. The yaya and the eight-year-old were also hit on their faces. The businessman who was behind them evaded the painful fumes but had to immediately attend to his immobilized household members.
The surprised subdivision guards witnessed the attack but the incident happened so fast they were unable to react immediately. It was already around 3:30 in the morning of New Year’s Day.
After the family reported the attack at the Mabolo Police Station, a cop accompanied them to the house of the attacker. But the big man did not allow them into the house nor did he come out. He dismissed them by saying “kiha lang mo.”
The man was later identified as the vice chief of security of a giant Cebuano conglomerate. He is also an ex-policeman from Los Angeles, USA, and had been tapped to train local police.
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I can’t imagine an ex-LA police who is training our own policemen would be so irresponsible to say the least. Pepper spraying an eight-year-old and his mother? No wonder some policemen are quick to the draw, especially during New Year’s Eve.
Businessmen and our city authorities should not tap the services of men like these. You’ll eventually find yourselves in trouble.
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Finally, we hurdled the long vacation. Some might have found it refreshing because of the long rest. But definitely, many just had to tighten their belts to stretch whatever they have left after Christmas and New Year’s Eve.
Last Monday, two women complained that they had to ride a taxi around the city to find an ATM machine that was not offline. When they finally found one, the line was very long because bank personnel were still loading money. And I thought the banking industry assured depositors that they would make sure inconvenience would be avoided.
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Thoughts of an economically dark and depressed 2009 somehow was modified after I read about US president-elect Barrack Obama’s $500 billion economic stimulus package that he plans to sign as a done deal with the US Congress on his inauguration day. The president-elect is clearly trying to achieve during his first hours as president what the inept President Bush failed to do to arrest the economic meltdown affecting the US. This should be good news for Filipinos with relatives in the US, businessmen dealing with American corporations, and the prospects of outsourcing to Philippine-based BPOs by US firms in order to survive.
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I am amused at how some Cebuanos responded to the announcement that three Philippine divas–Kuh Ledesma, Zsa-Zsa Padilla and Pops Fernandez–will perform at the Diva2Diva concert on Jan. 12 to start off the daily pre-Sinulog parties at the Waterfront hotel ballroom in Lahug. Overheard was this comment that they will sit at the front row so they can see up close the nose jobs on the three. “Kinsay mas nindot pagka-retoke?” they asked.
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Sometime before the long Christmas vacation, Fr. Eugene Maglasang of Don Bosco Technology Center called me up for my alma mater’s side on a recent controversy involving a school bully and my cousin’s son. I appreciated his explanation on what happened and what the school authorities are doing. With incidents like this, the school SOP was to bring the injured kid to the clinic before bringing him to the hospital. The school also intended to observe due process based on Department of Education regulations.
