Bulacan mayor, mom no-shows in ‘road rage’ probe

Mayor Patrick Meneses. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Mayor Patrick Meneses of Bulakan, Bulacan province, and his mother Priscilla failed to appear at the National Bureau of Investigation on Friday and only sent a lawyer in response to the NBI probe of a Quezon City road rage incident involving their vehicles.

Lawyer Jake Patrick Posio of Ponce Enrile Reyes & Manalastas law firm came to ask the NBI for copies of the “supposed complaint” for grave threats filed by University of the Philippines professor Elizabeth Pangalangan.

According to NBI agent Denielito Lalucis, Posio promised to present his clients in the next NBI hearing set on Nov. 19.

The NBI called for the Meneseses after they admitted in media statements and interviews that they owned the two vehicles—a Land Cruiser and an Innova—that were encountered by Pangalangan and her family members around noon of Oct. 27 on Congressional Avenue.

According to the professor, who is also the wife of Inquirer publisher Raul Pangalangan, a male passenger in the Innova got off the vehicle and pointed a gun at them, enraged that her vehicle had supposedly disrupted his convoy.

Both the mayor and Priscilla maintained that they were not in the two vehicles at the time, but they won’t reveal the names of the people using them. Mayor Meneses would only say that they were members of his mother’s staff, while Priscilla only identified the Innova driver as Joel Pinon.

Pangalangan earlier said they might also sue the Meneseses for obstruction of justice should they keep their silence on the matter. Nancy C. Carvajal