TUESDAY, JULY 13. The Angeles City police found the decomposing bodies of 60-year-old Canadian Geoffrey Allan Bennun and his Filipina live-in partner Abegail Helina, 20, at their residence in the Oasis Hotel compound.
Tuesday, July 20. The Angeles City police found the decomposing bodies of British national James Bolton Porter, 51, and his live-in partnern Mellisa Madarang, 22, in their rented apartment at Sta. Maria Subdivision, Barangay Balibago.
On the same day, the Angeles City police found Korean national Jaem Young Ko, 48, dead in his rented apartment in Villasol Subdivision, Barangay Anunas.
Tuesday seemed to be killing, er, body-finding day for the police in the city that middle of last week I asked a police buddy: So where do you hope to fill your body bags Tuesday next week?
The answer came ahead of that expected day.
Thursday, July 22. The Angeles City police found the bloody bodies of American national Albert Mitchell his Filipina wife Jannet, housemaids Isabel Fajardo and Marissa Pardo, and one Yulberto Vergara at the Mitchell’s residence in Hensonville Court, Barangay Malabanas.
Ten bodies in nine days, within the first 22 days of human rights lawyer Edgardo Pamintuan as mayor of Angeles City. A record of sorts there that could – if unchecked – easily equal if not surpass the 40 dead in a period of 30 days in May-June 1988 at the time of Mayor Antonio Abad Santos when Pamintuan was vice mayor, when counting bodies became the morbid pastime of the media and the city residents.
Back to current events: It would now appear that it is not just the fiscal bankruptcy of the city government, the P18-million debt to the Angeles Electric Corp., and the unpaid P63-million obligation to the Kalangitan landfill that were bequeathed as legacy of the unlamented Nepomuceno administration to the Agyu Tamu team, but the legacy of death too.
Nepomuceno may have the moniker Blue, but it was funereal black that shrouded his administration with a number of high-profile murder cases, that included: the Sisig Queen Aling Lucing, businessman Arwin Ting, businessman and disc jockey Heherson Punzalan; Joven Pineda Deala, half-brother of Apple.D.App of the Grammy Award-winning Black Eyed Peas; Edilberto Cayanan, the village chief of Barangay Pulung Maragul; former Malabanias Barangay Chairman Thelmo Lalic, and Daryl Angeles Celso, the son of a former village chief. One cop was also killed in the line of duty.
Expatriates and retirees were not spared too during Nepomuceno’s watch, to wit: American national George Lavalley, an Angeles City oldtimer; American tourist Jerry Melton, the Australian locator at the Clark Freeport, a Malaysian tourist, Korean national Kang-Ha Youn, and retired United States Navy man Raymond Buenaflor.
Practically not one of the cases was definitively solved. Notwithstanding the assault rifles worth millions of pesos, the four P1.2-million-per-unit motorcycles and the various vehicles that Nepomuceno gave to the police. After the usual condolences to the victims’ relatives and the perfunctory call to the police to find the perpetrators, Nepomuceno did nothing else to arrest the spiraling crime rate in the city. Which makes the chasm of a difference between him and Pamintuan.
Already, the principal – and so far, lone – suspect in the killings of Bennun, Porter, Mitchell and their mates has been tagged – one Mark Zamora Dizon, identified by the Hensonville security guide that accosted him, and also by the pawnshop personnel where he hocked his loot, mostly cameras and laptops. A warrant for his immediate arrest has also been issued.
Pamintuan has taken a personal – and tight – grip on the city’s peace and order situation, demanding from the police forces the utmost vigilance, virtually breathing down their necks orders to move, pre-empt, respond to any untoward situation happening in any part of the city.
Pamintuan could do no less. His social contract with his constituency carrying the warranty of peace for their city, the guarantee of safety of their well-being.
And then there is the matter of Angeles City being primed as premium retirement haven for expatriates. With a Canadian, a Briton and an American in body bags in a period of nine days, who would still want to retire here?
The body count has to stop. Now.
Tuesday, July 20. The Angeles City police found the decomposing bodies of British national James Bolton Porter, 51, and his live-in partnern Mellisa Madarang, 22, in their rented apartment at Sta. Maria Subdivision, Barangay Balibago.
On the same day, the Angeles City police found Korean national Jaem Young Ko, 48, dead in his rented apartment in Villasol Subdivision, Barangay Anunas.
Tuesday seemed to be killing, er, body-finding day for the police in the city that middle of last week I asked a police buddy: So where do you hope to fill your body bags Tuesday next week?
The answer came ahead of that expected day.
Thursday, July 22. The Angeles City police found the bloody bodies of American national Albert Mitchell his Filipina wife Jannet, housemaids Isabel Fajardo and Marissa Pardo, and one Yulberto Vergara at the Mitchell’s residence in Hensonville Court, Barangay Malabanas.
Ten bodies in nine days, within the first 22 days of human rights lawyer Edgardo Pamintuan as mayor of Angeles City. A record of sorts there that could – if unchecked – easily equal if not surpass the 40 dead in a period of 30 days in May-June 1988 at the time of Mayor Antonio Abad Santos when Pamintuan was vice mayor, when counting bodies became the morbid pastime of the media and the city residents.
Back to current events: It would now appear that it is not just the fiscal bankruptcy of the city government, the P18-million debt to the Angeles Electric Corp., and the unpaid P63-million obligation to the Kalangitan landfill that were bequeathed as legacy of the unlamented Nepomuceno administration to the Agyu Tamu team, but the legacy of death too.
Nepomuceno may have the moniker Blue, but it was funereal black that shrouded his administration with a number of high-profile murder cases, that included: the Sisig Queen Aling Lucing, businessman Arwin Ting, businessman and disc jockey Heherson Punzalan; Joven Pineda Deala, half-brother of Apple.D.App of the Grammy Award-winning Black Eyed Peas; Edilberto Cayanan, the village chief of Barangay Pulung Maragul; former Malabanias Barangay Chairman Thelmo Lalic, and Daryl Angeles Celso, the son of a former village chief. One cop was also killed in the line of duty.
Expatriates and retirees were not spared too during Nepomuceno’s watch, to wit: American national George Lavalley, an Angeles City oldtimer; American tourist Jerry Melton, the Australian locator at the Clark Freeport, a Malaysian tourist, Korean national Kang-Ha Youn, and retired United States Navy man Raymond Buenaflor.
Practically not one of the cases was definitively solved. Notwithstanding the assault rifles worth millions of pesos, the four P1.2-million-per-unit motorcycles and the various vehicles that Nepomuceno gave to the police. After the usual condolences to the victims’ relatives and the perfunctory call to the police to find the perpetrators, Nepomuceno did nothing else to arrest the spiraling crime rate in the city. Which makes the chasm of a difference between him and Pamintuan.
Already, the principal – and so far, lone – suspect in the killings of Bennun, Porter, Mitchell and their mates has been tagged – one Mark Zamora Dizon, identified by the Hensonville security guide that accosted him, and also by the pawnshop personnel where he hocked his loot, mostly cameras and laptops. A warrant for his immediate arrest has also been issued.
Pamintuan has taken a personal – and tight – grip on the city’s peace and order situation, demanding from the police forces the utmost vigilance, virtually breathing down their necks orders to move, pre-empt, respond to any untoward situation happening in any part of the city.
Pamintuan could do no less. His social contract with his constituency carrying the warranty of peace for their city, the guarantee of safety of their well-being.
And then there is the matter of Angeles City being primed as premium retirement haven for expatriates. With a Canadian, a Briton and an American in body bags in a period of nine days, who would still want to retire here?
The body count has to stop. Now.
