Ex-mayor of Bohol town cries police brutality as cops try to arrest him after reporting vote buying

Former Panglao mayor Toribio Bon shows his bruises after police tried to arrest him when he called their attentionto a vote-buying incident on the road in front of a public school in Barangay Tangnan in Panglao, Bohol, on Election Day. PHOTO: Leo Udtohan/Inquirer Visayas

TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines– A former mayor of Panglao town in Bohol is set to file charges against police officers who allegedly hurt him after asking them to stop an incident of vote buying on election day Monday, May 9.

Toribio Bon, 72, resident of Tangnan village, suffered bruises and said he was also hit in the stomach while trying to stop the policemen from arresting him.

But the police claimed it was Bon who was disrespectful to the police and said he would be charged with direct assault, resistance and disobedience to a person of authority.

According to Bon, he had just cast his vote at Tangnan Elementary School at past 8 a.m. when he saw three men giving out cash with sample ballots along the road in front of the school.

Aghast at the blatant display of vote buying, he told the three men to stop what they were doing. When he was ignored, he went to complain to the six policemen who were just about three meters away.

But the policemen instead asked him if he had evidence to prove vote buying, and this irked the former mayor.

“The police saw the vote buying. Even if they would not reprimand them, these policemen should have at least stopped it,” said Bon.

“The policemen instead got angry at me after I told them if they were blind because it was clear that these men were buying votes,” he added.

The policemen tried to handcuff the former mayor and force him inside the police vehicle, which resulted in a scuffle.

A policeman allegedly hit him in the stomach with the butt of an M16 rifle.

The commotion caught the attention of a local official and a lawyer who told the policemen to leave Bon alone because he was a former mayor and a senior citizen.

It was only then that the policemen left.

In a statement, Lt. Amelito Melloria, chief of Panglao Police Station, said Bon allegedly berated the policemen and pointed a finger at them while shouting, “You, policemen, are blind.”

Bon was asked to stop, but the former mayor allegedly continued berating them and even attempted to spit on one of the policemen.

The police said the former mayor also tried to grab a policeman’s firearm. Bon, however, denied this.

“At my age, do you think I can fight and try to grab a firearm (from a policeman)?” he asked.

Bon was vice mayor of Panglao from 1995 to 1998, and mayor from 1998 to 2001.  /ra