Metro Briefs : PH Sailing Team trainee drowns

A COACH of the Philippine Sailing Team has been arrested after a 14-year-old recruit drowned while training in Manila Bay on Sunday. The Manila Police District said that Felipe Mosquera, 57, of the Philippine Sailing Association, would be held liable for reckless imprudence resulting in homicide. Mosquera, who was taken into police custody on Sunday night, refused to be interviewed by reporters. Reached for comment, Philippine Sailing Federation president Ernesto Echauz said they were still waiting for the police report.

“As of now, the Philippine Sailing Association has not received the incident report because of our ongoing race in the 2016 Regatta from Subic going to Boracay. Rest assured that the association will extend help to the victim’s family,” he told the Inquirer.

According to witnesses, Clarence Jhon Sanchez, who had joined the team just a day before, died during training. The statement of Sanchez’s 12-year-old teammate, a copy of which was obtained by the Inquirer, said the latter drowned around 2:30 p.m. at a portion of Manila Bay covered by Block 1 of the Baseco compound. The witness clarified that he did not see what happened, adding that he just heard someone shout that somebody had drowned.

He later saw his teammates rescuing Sanchez and pumping the water out of his chest to no avail. Sanchez’s father, Nalbert, told the police that he and his wife were not informed that their son had joined the team. “In his statement, Nalbert Sanchez averred that he did not have any knowledge of his son Clarence being a member of the Philippine Sailing Team or practicing with the team,” the police said. Based on medical reports, the boy died of asphyxia due to drowning. Aie Balagtas See and Jonathan Leonor

Missing bag or no bag at all?

A 37-YEAR-OLD woman claimed over the weekend that the X-ray scanning equipment at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) made her wallet, containing nearly P100,000 in cash, vanish. Ann Margaret Anthony, who claimed to be an American citizen, filed a report with the Aviation Security Group-National Capital Region office and asked the police to look into the disappearance of her wallet. She alleged that her “Gucci” wallet was inside her black “Hermes” shoulder bag when it went on Saturday morning through the X-ray scanner at the initial security screening checkpoint of the Naia Terminal 3 departure area Gate 1.

As she was about to pay for her ticket to Iloilo, she discovered the disappearance of her wallet which contained P98,000, assorted credit and debit cards as well as family pictures. A check of the footage taken by a closed-circuit TV footage, however, showed that she did not have a shoulder bag at all when she entered the airport. Jeannette I. Andrade

UNA explains Binay’s no-show

THE UNITED Nationalist Alliance (UNA) thought it best for its standard bearer, Vice President Jejomar Binay, to continue his motorcade in more areas in Tondo, Manila, rather than hold a rally in just one place to reach out to more people.

This was the explanation given yesterday by Binay’s campaign spokesperson Rico Quicho after the Inquirer reported that people in several barangays in Tondo waited on Sunday for the Vice President to speak to them and grew angry after he failed to do so.

The Inquirer report said that Binay was scheduled to speak from 1:30 p.m. to 2:30 p.m. at the covered court shared by Barangays 152 and 153, the first stop in his motorcade in Tondo. However, when the Vice President and other UNA candidates reached the area, the vehicle carrying them backed up and drove away, leaving the crowd wondering where they went.

“Vice President Binay is close to the people there and they will understand the decision for the motorcade to continue around the area and that was why he was unable to drop by in [some of] the barangays,” Quicho told reporters in Las Piñas City where Binay and his partymates dropped by for lunch yesterday after visiting residents on CAA road.

He expressed hope that barangay officials and residents in Manila would understand what happened. On the report that a Liberal Party candidate had “sabotaged” the visit of Binay to the area, Quicho said it was difficult to speculate. “What happened was that the Vice President did not go down … and he decided to continue with the motorcade so he could go to more areas and visit more people…,” he added. Christine O. Avendaño