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Monday, May 16, 2005
Cotabato scions figure in hotel melee
By Joy G. Romares and Ben O. Tesiorna
DAVAO CITY -- Scions of two influential clans in Mindanao figured in fistfights and bottle throwing inside the Liquid Bar of the Apo View Hotel at past midnight Sunday.
Chief Inspector Matthew Baccay, San Pedro police chief, identified those involved as scions of the Sinsuat and Ampatuan clans in Maguindanao.
He said the two groups were inside the Liquid Bar at around 1 a.m. Sunday when they got into a heated argument followed by a fistfight.
Employees of the Apo View Hotel, who requested anonymity, said the two groups threw bottles and chased each other from Liquid Bar to the hotel's carpark area.
An employee said Mayor Rodrigo Duterte's son, Paolo, even had to fire a gun just to pacify the warring groups.
Baccay, however, denied this, saying the young Duterte merely pacified the two groups who happen to be his friends.
"He never fired a gun," Baccay said.
He said Paolo Duterte even accompanied the two groups to the San Pedro police station along with police authorities.
Baccay assured that if ever one of those involved would file a formal complaint before them, an investigation would be conducted so that proper charges could be filed in court.
But, Baccay said, the trouble was soon patched up and the incident was not recorded in the police blotter.
"May (There was) amicable settlement na nangyari (that happened) between the two groups kaya hindi na sila nagpa-blotter pa," Baccay said.
Senior Police Officer 1 Jaime Rene Pacumbaba, radio/telephone operator of the San Pedro police station, said members of the two groups, who came to their precinct, refused to identify themselves.
But the young Sinsuat and Ampatuan are known figures in the city party scene and thus were identified by those who witnessed the fight.
Pacumbaba said it was the security guard of the hotel who first appeared at their precinct.
"The security guard reported that trouble broke out in Apo View and the complainants would soon make their appearance. But when the group arrived, they didn't even identify themselves. Soon after, the 911 ambulance arrived and had the bruised young men treated and then they all left," Pacumbaba said in the vernacular.
(May 16, 2005 issue)
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