Road rage lands cop, convict in jail
What do PO2 Roderick Maniti and homicide convict Jason Bagalacsa have in common?
They are now both behind bars for road rage shootings, after Maniti sent a tricycle driver to the hospital in Malabon City, and Bagalacsa sent a teenage girl to the morgue in Quezon City.
The two incidents followed another case involving a trigger-happy motorist who remains at large and unidentified after wounding a nine-year-old girl in Quezon City on Dec. 6. An account of the first case, given by the girl’s father, recently went viral on social media.
A complaint for frustrated murder was filed Friday against Maniti, 43, after he allegedly shot 28-year-old Patrick Sevilla following a road accident the previous day. The officer reports to the National Capital Region Police Office.
Maniti was riding a bike on M.H. del Pilar Street, Barangay Santolan, Malabon, when he was hit by a tricycle driven by Sevilla around 8:30 a.m. Thursday.
Sevilla stopped to help Maniti after the latter fell off his bike, but the policeman suddenly punched him, according to the complaint.
Maniti also issued a threat. “Where do you live? Wait for me, I’ll get back at you,” he said, before going on his way.
Sevilla, who resides in the same barangay, went home and later asked two fellow drivers to accompany him to the police station to file a complaint.
But as they were passing by the site of the accident, they saw Maniti, now armed with a .45-cal. pistol, get out of a car parked nearby. The officer fired four shots at the running Sevilla, hitting him once in the right thigh.
Maniti fled in the car but a pursuing team from the Malabon police caught up with him in Valenzuela City.
In Quezon City, the man who was arrested Dec. 9 for killing a 17-year-old girl because of another traffic altercation turned out to be a wanted convict from Albay province.
Bagalacsa, 28, had been a fugitive for the last three years, according to the Quezon City Police District. A Tabaco City judge found him guilty of homicide and frustrated homicide in 2010 for killing a man and wounding another using ‘’arrows,” said Chief Insp. Rodelio Marcelo, chief of the QCPD’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit.
Bagalacsa was finally arrested Monday, this time for killing Rochelle Tabuzo, after he figured in an argument with a tricycle driver in front of Puregold Supermarket in Sangandaan.
QCPD records showed that Bagalacsa was nearly hit by a tricycle driven by Alvin Gamboa, 29, as he was crossing the street. After a heated exchange, the convict pulled out a .45-cal. pistol, fired at the tricycle and hit Tabuzo, Gamboa’s passenger.
A policeman, SPO1 Roy Villareal, saw the incident as he was passing through the area on his motorcycle. He chased the fleeing Bagalacsa and had him disarmed.
Tabuzo died from a gunshot wound in the back Thursday afternoon at Quezon City General Hospital.
The QCPD said Bagalacsa was also a suspect in Oct. 21 shooting of SPO3 Renato Corado in Barangay Sta. Monica, Novaliches, Quezon City.
