Another guard draws gun to stop Mabuhay Lanes crew
Days after a bank security officer shot a Quezon City traffic enforcer dead, another security guard was apprehended for pointing his shotgun at a traffic constable who was also conducting clearing operations for Mabuhay Lanes.
Petronilo Rontos, a security guard at the Philippine National Bank branch at the corner of D. Tuazon and N.S. Amoranto streets in Barangay Lourdes, pointed his service firearm at Daniel Senin Jr., a traffic constable of the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority (MMDA), during a clearing operation around 2:40 p.m. Friday, according to a police report.
MMDA personnel, together with the Quezon City Police District traffic sector, were towing motorcycles when the 51-year-old Rontos confronted them over a bank messenger’s motorcycle, said PO3 Reagan Cuarto of the Quezon City Police District’s La Loma station.
In the ensuing argument, Rontos cocked his Mossberg shotgun and pointed it at the 32-year-old Senin.
But the guard apparently realized what he was doing and hurriedly went back inside the bank, police said.
Policemen from QCPD-La Loma later arrived at the scene and convinced Rontos to come out and go to the station.
Rontos is facing charges for grave threat and direct assault on a person in authority.
On Nov. 12, 60-year-old Enrique Fresnido of the city’s Department of Public Order and Safety was shot in the head by BDO security officer Alex Batacan, also over the removal of motorcycles parked on roads covered by the Mabuhay traffic scheme. Some of the bikes belonged to the bank’s guards.
Batacan was arrested and charged with murder in the city prosecutor’s office.
The Mabuhay Lanes are a network of alternative routes designated by the MMDA for motorists who wish to avoid traffic congestion especially on Edsa during the holiday season and next week’s Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit being held in the capital.
MMDA teams in charge of clearing the routes of illegally parked vehicles and other structures earlier met resistance in San Juan, where city officials invoked a pay parking ordinance, and in Quiapo, Manila, where some residents also didn’t want their vehicles touched.
