BEHIND THE SCENES

Mandapat’s mettle/Jude Wal 11’s killer
ALFRED P. DIZON

BAGUIO CITY – Federico Mandapat, Jr. is showing more mettle as Cordillera regional director of the Dept. of Transportation and Communications than when he was Baguio councilor when he had to get the consensus of his council peers in legislating laws or addressing issues.

Lately, the lawyer who earned his way through law school by becoming a policeman called for a stop to the processing and issuance of at least 438 franchises for garage vans plying various routes from Region I to Baguio due to alleged anomalies and questionable transactions done within the land Transportation Franchising Regulatory Board in Region I.

Mandapat said processing of the franchises was highly irregular since it was done without proper consultation with his office and the local government of Baguio to ensure availability of parking spaces for the vehicles.

The city’s already congested streets would become intolerable like Divisoria, if the franchises wouldn’t be stopped as Mandapat pointed out. Once the franchises would be released, he warned the huge number of garage vans would contribute to monstrous traffic jams within the city which they are trying to address by weeding out vehicles with questionable franchises.

According to Mandapat, it would be unfair for the LTFRB in Region I to be freely issuing out franchises to vehicles plying various routes from Region I to Baguio without first consulting the affected local government unit or DOTC office to iron out possible flaws in the franchises to be released.

Concerned government offices could check who the scalawags are in the regional Ilocos LTFRB office. I know a fixer who is a member of the LTFRB mafia in the region (although she is not an employee of the agency) who has a “friend” at the National Bureau of Investigation in the region whom she uses to muscle and harass some clients she lent money to. This NBI agent whose family name starts with a C took up law but didn’t pass the bar and an agin-agin atorni who says he is a Baguio resident. Lest we stray, let’s talk about this character and his girlfriend in another column.
***
So back. The Cordillera regional DOTC has reportedly fielded four teams to check the operation of colorum vehicles plying the city’s streets. The squads are supposed to be checking public utility vehicles even at night because colorum vehicles usually operate at night when there is less presence of government personnel. Maybe, the good director could check on this since I frequent Session Road but couldn’t see DOTC personnel checking colorum vehicles.

Numerous vans and taxis have already been apprehended by different teams for using the license plate number of another vehicle which is in gross violation of the certificates of public convenience issued to them.

Despite the hitches on the lack of personnel, Mandapat said they would push through with the campaign against colorum vehicles as they are now subjecting at least 100 franchises for cancellation due to anomalous documents.

As reported by Dexter See earlier, almost all anomalous franchises was allegedly processed and issued at the LTFRB in Region I prior to the creation of the LTFRB Cordillera office sometime in December 2002.

In order to circumvent the existing ban on the issuance of franchises within the Baguio-La Trinidad-Itogon-Sablan-Tuba (BLIST) area, Mandapat bared some inserted their franchise case numbers in Region I prior to the circular which was issued sometime in 1998.

He vowed to impose sanctions on operators with valid franchises but who misrepresented their documents especially on the attestation of the existence of their private parking areas for their vehicles.

DOTC personnel have noticed most of the public utility vehicles are parked along roads as they don’t have parking areas as attested in their affidavits and have violated their franchises, thus, it is sufficient ground to cancel their permits.
***
Jude Wal, the father and namesake of slain Saint Louis student Jude Wal 11 told local media he knows who masterminded the murder of his eldest son, saying no other person has any motive to perpetuate it.

According to the elder Wal, the mastermind in his son’s murder had an “axe to grind” against him and made sure his son was the one murdered instead of him to maximize the grief of his family. Wal’s family and relatives on Thursday held a “senga,” an indigenous kankanaey ritual to bring justice to the student’s death. The family hails from Tadian, Mountain Province.

Jude 11, who just turned 21 five days before he was murdered was supposed to graduate in two months but was instead cremated at Heaven’s Garden Memorial Park on Thursday. Police said earlier he was shot in cold blood along M. Roxas St. around 6:45 a.m. on Jan. 25. He was repeatedly shot on his head, chest and biceps.

The victim was shot while driving his younger brother to school in a green Kia Besta van bearing plate number WPL-904. His father said, it had been his son’s routine to drive his younger brother and sisters to school the past five years. The killer eluded arrest in the heavy-traffic area but witnesses were able to identify him as 5’4” in height and riding a motorcycle.

Cops have discounted other angles on his death saying it was remotely possible it was due to gang or fraternity war since he was not a member of peer groups. They said it was also not possible due to a love triangle since he parted ways with his girlfriend two years ago and the separation was friendly.

Our condolence to the family. With some witnesses, we hope the murderer and mastermind would be arrested sooner or they would sow more mayhem.