Bambi shooting
uncovers LTO anomaly

For months, I had been receiving complaints from sugar farmers and truck drivers about allegedly hard impositions on the drivers by LTO personnel in the North.

Wednesday's shooting of Bambi Yngson, director of the Negros Press Club, only highlights the gravity of the racket. Nobody would gun down a mediaman so coldbloodedly unless it involves a major amount of take.

That, I think, is a signal to mediamen of the province to focus now on digging into the anomaly that had become a major cause of uproar among drivers and motorists.

It's time that the LTO does away with its mobile patrols that only victimize the motorists and truck drivers. While they have gotten away with the practice for sometime, it is simply because no one really wanted to run after these extortionists. Now that they have fired the opening salvo, I think it is time that media takes up the challenge and concentrate its attention on this racket which had prompted one of them to gun down a helpless victim.

The shooting of Bambi may have intended to silence him. Or put a stop to his daily denunciations of the anomaly. Instead, God, in His mysterious way, may have purposely intended to focus our attention on something that had already victimized especially poor truck drivers.

This time, I hope the police will be able to really dig deep into the reason for the Bambi assault. It cannot just be what PNP chief Rosendo Franco may have considered a personal grudge. There must be something more than just a hurt for one to shoot down an unarmed mediaman.

Well, that's the challenge to the Sagay police and the entire provincial PNP force.

* * *

Retired Bacolod police chief Vicente Ponteras should not hide. He may have strong reason to argue against his inclusion in the kidnap-murder case of former Barangay Captain Eleuterio Salabas. The Regional Trial Court of Guihulngan had issued a warrant for his arrest and for former Bacolod police chief George Bajelot.

Actually, I had long known about the possible inclusion of Ponteras and Bajelot in the case. But I never had anticipated that it would reach the courts.

The trouble is that the amended information involving Ponteras and Bajelot had been filed before the court by First Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Fidel Macauyag. In short, he was supposed to have found a prima facie case against the two.

Only the court can now determine the validity of the claim of innocence by Ponteras and Bajelot. Not by hiding from the court, but precisely by countering before the judge the claims of the prosecution that he (Ponteras) had anything to do with the dastardly act.

Of course, I agree with some of the explanations of Ponteras about his non-involvement in the kidnap-murder case. But neither I nor the public can determine the validity of the arguments against the indictment. It is a matter that only the court can decide.

Flight (or hiding from service of warrant) will not exculpate Ponteras or Bajelot. The proper venue is the court.

* * *

That celebration of my advanced diamond birth anniversary had drained me of my staying power. Thus, I missed two major appointments. The first was the meeting with Monet and Yoly Kilayko and Wednesday's installation of Fr. Felix Pasquin as rector of the San Sebastian Cathedral.

Well, Fr. Pasquin is a person who is aware that I am one of those who hail his elevation to his new assignment as rector of the Bacolod cathedral.

Fr. Pasquin is one priest for whom I always have high regard. Even while just a pastor of the airport parish, Fr. Pasquin and my family had always been close. Over the years, I have followed him in his various assignments which he had consistently discharged with finesse and aplomb, worthy of a shepherd of the flock.

Now, I can only pray and hope that Fr. Pasquin will bring with him to the Cathedral flock the brand of Christian leadership that had proven his dynamism, both as an evangelizer and as a media practitioner.

* * *

I was stunned yesterday when I spotted two motorcycle-riders along Corazon Locsin Montelibano Boulevard going to Capitol Heights. The first had two riding tandem. I supposed it must have been a husband and his wife. Both had no protective headgear.

Suddenly another overtook their vehicle. This time, I saw it was another person who had no helmet on his head. And he roared off, weaving in and out of the traffic with no cared about whether he could crash into oncoming vehicles.

But that's not all. Later, along Lacson Street, I saw several more motorcyclists also weaving in and out of the traffic uncaring of the fact that they had no crash helmets.

And, the funny thing, they passed through several traffic aides and nobody flagged them down.

Worse, later, I spotted a passenger jeepney taking on passengers in front of a BAC-UP station along Lacson right in the middle of the road. That cab driver complained - "since nobody grabs them, they just do things their own way."

Well, these are not new sights. They happen everyday.*

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