MetroBriefs

Reveler shot by man with short temper

A 50-year-old reveler in the annual celebration of the feast day

of St. John the Baptist in San Juan City on Sunday ended up in the hospital after a man whom he had drenched with a bucketful of water got irked and shot him. Delfin Salvo, a steward supervisor of Manila

Pavillon Hotel and a resident of the city’s Barangay Ermitanio, was hit in the shoulder and rushed to San Juan Medical Center. “It was supposed to be for everyone’s merriment. But there were people who are not used to the tradition,” case investigator PO3 Gener Antaso said. He identified the shooter as Mariano San Andres, a seaman who was visiting some relatives in the city. The shooting occurred at the corner of N. Domingo and F. Santos Streets after San Andres asked Salvo and the other residents to avoid dousing him and his wife with water, a tradition observed during the feast day. “He even warned them that he had a gun which he would use if one of them dared to do so,” Antaso said. The residents stayed away from San Andres but when Salvo saw him again, the latter asked him if it was okay to douse him with water before doing so. The seaman lost his temper, went to his gray Toyota Fortuner with plate number TQK 970 and drove up to the group of residents. He alighted from his car and waved his pistol at the residents while saying, “Here’s my gun.” He then punched Salvo before boarding his car again. When an angry group of bystanders ran after him, San Andres stopped his vehicle, stepped out and started firing his gun, hitting Salvo. He then escaped as the victim was rushed to the hospital.   Niña Calleja

Rama finally arraigned

Talent manager Annabelle Rama Monday pleaded not guilty to the 14 counts of libel filed against her by former actress Nadia Montenegro. Rama was finally arraigned on the charges before Judge Eleuterio Bathan of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 92 in connection with the supposedly malicious statements she made on Twitter and in television interviews about Montenegro. The court, meanwhile, ordered both women to work things out in the Philippine Mediation Center as mandated by court regulations. The case stemmed from a child abuse complaint Montenegro filed against Rama who used to manage the former’s two teenage daughters. Montenegro had claimed that Rama had overworked her children. “The court told us to talk and undergo mediation proceedings and submit a report on the results a month after,” said Rama’s lawyer, Howard Calleja, after the arraignment. Earlier, Rama was ordered arrested by the court after she failed to attend her arraignment on June 11. The talent manager voluntarily surrendered to the court a week later and the 14 arrest warrants the judge had issued against her were recalled. “Everything is possible,” Calleja said when he was asked if an amicable settlement could be reached between his client and Montenegro although he added that it was still too early to tell. The 30-day mediation period means that no hearings will be held by the court in the meantime. However, Montenegro was quick to dismiss the possibility of reaching a settlement with Rama. Julie M. Aurelio