TMU-BTAO chief relieved

The head of the Bacolod City Police Office-Traffic Management Unit/Bacolod City Traffic Authority Office was relieved from his post yesterday.

Senior Insp. Benedicto Villarias Jr. was transferred to Police Station 4 as deputy chief, Supt. Jefferson Descallar, BCPO deputy chief for operations, said.

He said Villarias, who was informed of his relief order at their command conference yesterday, was replaced by Insp. Roger Ong, former deputy chief of Station 2 and a traffic investigator.

The relief order was signed by Senior Supt. Edgardo Ordaniel, acting director of BCPO Sunday, records show.

Reports said Villarias was also relieved as BTAO head by Mayor Monico Puentevella allegedly because he had not addressed traffic problems in the city properly.

However, in a text message sent to the DAILY STAR, Puentevella denied relieving Villarias and said he only “reassigned” him.

He said Villarias and Chief Insp. Levy Pangue, former TMU north sector head, will lead the traffic operations he will launch next month.

On the truck ban exemptions that Councilor Carl Lopez was requesting, and that Villarias allegedly failed to comply with, he said they could only give seven days of temporary exemption, as the Sangguniang Panlungsod has to approve the permanent exemption.

Villarias, however, said he never issued a certification on the truck ban exemptions.*SGG

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1 killed in traffic accident;
2 hurt in shooting, stabbing

A trisikad driver died in a traffic accident Monday in Cauayan town, while two were injured in shooting and stabbing incidents in the cities of Sagay and Bago, all in Negros Occidental.

Police records show that Ronnie Taala died when his trisikad was bumped by a Ceres Liner passenger bus driven by Archie Bais at the national highway of Purok 1, Brgy. Linaon, Cauayan, a report of the town police said.

Investigations by the Cauayan police showed that Taala, 44, died on the spot and that Bais surrendered to the police immediately.

A day earlier, Ernesto Aungon, a 34-year-old widower, was stabbed several times by two suspects, indentified as Ruben Barbastillas and JanJan Labrador, both laborers, in Brgy. Busay, Bago City, which triggered by heated arguments.

A team of Bago policemen led by PO3 Jimmy Potestad, who responded to the stabbing incident, arrested Doba, while Barbatillas surrendered to the police later. Both suspects are now in jail, while Aungon, also a laborer, is now being treated at the Corazon Locsin Montelibano Memorial Regional Hospital in Bacolod City.

However, a suspect in the shooting of Carlito Moralla, 32, in Sitio Pula, Brgy. Lopez Jaena, Sagay City on Sunday, has managed to escape, police said.*GPB

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Taxi driver held
up in Bacolod

A taxi driver was held up and robbed of about P1,900 in cash at Rizal-Lopez Jaena streets, Brgy. 41 in Bacolod City, at about 7:50 p.m., Sunday.

Andy Enlis, 46, of Brgy. 29 in Bacolod, said yesterday that when his passenger alighted from his taxi in Brgy. 41, he also went out of the car to answer the call of nature.

Two unidentified men approached, one of them asked if they could rode his taxi, and boarded it, Enlis said.

He said that when he turned the engine on, one of the suspects pointed a knife at him and ordered him to give them his collections.

The suspects took his wallet that contained P1,900 in cash, driver’s license and other documents, he said.

One of the suspects was nabbed in a follow-up operation in Brgy. 41 in Bacolod, at about 8:15 p.m. Sunday, Chief Insp. Adonis Rosales said yesterday.

The suspect Allan Robert, 32, of Brgy. 27 in the city, was positively identified by Enlis as one of the two men who held him up. The other suspect, identified as Fritz Ponsehan, of Brgy. 14, was still at large.

Robert, who denied the allegations, said he had pawned his cellular phone for P200 to Enlis but when he decided to get it, the driver failed to give it back. He said he took the driver’s license of Enlis so he would gave back his cellular phone and pay him his previous debt of P1,000.

Robert, who admitted being jailed for illegal drugs, said he will face whatever charges they will file against him in court.*SGG

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