Metro Briefs: Feb. 27, 2019

Angry mob beats up alleged child kidnapper

The police have arrested a man accused of abducting a 6-year-old girl in Quezon City but not before he was beaten up by an angry mob.

Norly Rafael was sporting bruises on his face and body when members of the National Capital Region Police Office’s (NCRPO) Regional Special Operations Unit came for him at the Commonwealth barangay hall on Monday.

Director Guillermo Eleazar, NCRPO chief, said the 53-year-old suspect tried to kidnap a young girl but she managed to escape.

An angry crowd then chased Rafael and beat him up when they learned of the girl’s ordeal.

Based on the police investigation, Rafael was the suspect in the kidnapping of at least five minors, some as young as 4 years old, within the week.

The victims, however, were able to escape and positively identified Rafael as their abductor.

After his arrest, Rafael identified two people as his cohorts.

Although they were also taken into custody, the suspects were released because Eleazar said they found “no concrete evidence [linking] them [to] the kidnapping.”

Rafael, however, claimed that he had been tortured into owning up the kidnappings.

“I was forced to confess. I did not do it. If you were beaten up and a bag was placed over your head, making it hard for you to breathe, you would also admit to any crime,” he said. —Dexter Cabalza

Jeepney drivers must claim fuel subsidy vouchers by Feb. 28

Jeepney drivers and operators who qualified for the P5,000 fuel subsidy under the government’s Pantawid Pasada Program (PPP) have only until tomorrow, Feb. 28, to claim their vouchers.

The Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTFRB) earlier said that only 87,000 out of around 173,000 beneficiaries have redeemed the subsidy cards nearly a year after PPP was launched.

The fuel subsidy program was revived last year to help drivers cope with the series of fuel price increases at that time.

The lower than expected number of claimants, said Jay Sabale of the LTFRB media relations office, could mean that some driver-operators had yet to complete their requirements or were not informed of the process for claiming the subsidy. —Krixia Subingsubing