BY GILBERT P. BAYORAN
One of the four persons who protested against the operation of the VMC distillery plant in Brgy. Purisima, Manapla, Negros Occidental, and were charged by policemen for direct assaults was arrested on July 4.
Nabbed by virtue of an arrest warrant issued by EB Magalona Municipal Circuit Trial Court Judge Ranhel Anotado Perez for the crime of direct assaults in Sitio Felicidad, Brgy. Purisima, Manapla, was Daniel Lausa Patigas, of the place.
Judge Perez recommended P36,000 bail for Patigas, who is now under the custody of the Manapla police.
Similar arrest warrants have been issued against Randy Bacaron, Reynaldo Illustrisimo Arriola and Peter Paul Lausa Patigas, court records show.
The VMC also filed multiple charges against 21 residents of Manapla, Negros Occidental for allegedly barricading themselves outside the perimeter gates of the VMC distillery plant in Barangay Purisima to prevent the entry and departure of trucks and tankers hauling raw materials on February 14.
Jose Ramon Eduardo Unson, head of the VMC Asset Protection and Safety Department, in his complaint affidavit filed before the Negros Occidental Prosecutor’s Office, alleged that the 21 respondents put up barbed wires and wood with protruding nails in the area.
The 21 Manapla residents face charges for alleged illegal assemblies, tumultuous disturbance, unlawful utterances, alarms and scandals, serious illegal detention, grave threats and grave coercion.*
