Buhay partylist Representative Lito Atienza. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
An unnamed police colonel toted gun against television host Kim “Kuya Kim” Atienza and his friends while cycling in Sta. Rosa, Laguna two weeks ago, his father Buhay Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza said Wednesday.
The older Atienza condemned the incident, citing the prevailing “culture of death” in the country.
“We don’t want this to happen to you, any citizen, to be victimized by the culture of death. They are not afraid to kill anymore,” Atienza said in a press conference.
He said Kuya Kim and his three cyclist friends were biking along the highway when a car sped up and overtook them.
“Biglang may umovertake na kotse, galit na galit. Binabaan sila, tinutukan sila ng baril sa mukha lahat. Di nga alam kung ano ginawa nila. And ‘yun na, nalagpasan lang daw nila, naovertake nila,” he said.
(A car suddenly overtook them. The man, enraged, went out the car and toted gun at their faces, and they did not have an idea what they did wrong. Apparently, they overtook him and went past him.)
Atienza said Kuya Kim and his group later found out that he was a police colonel in the province, but he refused to name the official and promised to reveal it some other time.
The lawmaker warned that this could happen to anyone as killings have become rampant in the country.
“’Yun kung sakaling binaril sila Kim, lalagyan lang sila ng mga droga (If Kim and his friends got killed, they would just be planted with drugs), sachet of shabu, and say they are all drug suspects. These things will happen,” he added.
Atienza said the “the culture of death will punish and affect all of us eventually.”
“Ngayon patayan nang patayan (Killings have become nonstop). You report it mga media. Every day, every night, people are getting killed. Di mo na malaman kung drug-related yon o hindi (You don’t even know if it is drug-related or not),” he added. /idl