Injustice against small folk

Every hour, every day, all kinds of injustice are being committed against small folk by people in power and influence.

These oppressed folk, who are often ignored by the government, run to media entities, like “Isumbong mo kay Tulfo,” which have become their unofficial ombudsman.

Since there is no government agency that attends to their complaints, media offices are filled every day with aggrieved citizens seeking redress.

The media entities which attend to citizens’ complaints —there are many others apart from “Isumbong”—have become the safety valve so public anger against government apathy doesn’t boil over to turning into a revolution.

As of Friday, April 10, the following were perceived cases of oppression received at “Isumbong”:

1) Marvin Verzosa, 21, unemployed, is detained at the Pasay City police station’s intelligence division after being arrested by SPO1 Ronald Alla.

Alla suspected Verzosa, his neighbor, of stealing his motorcycle from his house in Barangay Sto. Niño, Parañaque City.

No evidence was found on Verzosa, yet Pasay City Prosecutor Roque Rosales ordered him detained.

Verzosa told his mother he was tortured by police investigators.

It was his mother, Analie Alindugan, who came to my office to tell his story.

Please take note, dear readers, that the alleged theft of the policeman’s motorcycle took place in Parañaque and yet Verzosa is detained at the Pasay City police station!

2) Junaur Pelaez is detained at the police station in General Mariano Alvarez town in Cavite province on suspicion of burglary.

His house, which was raided by the police without a search warrant, didn’t yield a single stolen item.

Pelaez’s mother, Aurora, claims he was tortured by the police.

3) Cristina Roquero, a Filipino contract worker in Iraq, came to us on behalf of her daughter, Rachel, 18, who was run over by a Citybus liner.

Citybus management promised to foot the hospital and medical bills but hasn’t given a single centavo, according to Cristina.

Roquero says she has spent P244,000 for Rachel’s hospital stay and her medicines.

The bus company’s lawyer, a certain Attorney Romero, has allegedly been giving Roquero the runaround.

4) The University of Perpetual Help Hospital/Dr. Jose G. Tamayo Medical University Inc. has reportedly refused to release the body of a prematurely-born boy who died in the facility because the parents, both minors, couldn’t pay the bill.

The bill amounts to P758,000.

The infant’s body has been kept at the hospital morgue since April 3.