Police said Robert Amile, 23; Luisito Diones, 32; and a 15-year-old boy are now detained after they dropped sacks of cement filled with rocks at a Hyundai Starex van owned and carrying the home-bound Department of Interior and Local Government Secretary, Angelo Reyes.
Investigation showed that the van, with plate number WNG-193, being driven by T/Sgt. Warlito Mostrales, was cruising along EDSA at the intersection of Shaw Boulevard at around 12:35 a.m. when it was hit by sacks of rocks.
The impact broke the front windshield of the van and almost caused Mostrales to lose control of the vehicle.
Mandaluyong police operatives responded immediately to the report of Reyes’ group of the incident and follow-up operations resulted in the identification of the trio by witnesses, mostly loiterers in the area, and their subsequent arrest.
It was learned that the suspects, all residents of Calbayog street, Barangay Hiway Hills, Mandaluyong, were positioned at the pedestrian path in the Shaw Boulevard course of the intersection when they dropped the sacks with rocks at the van of Reyes then traversing the southbound EDSA course of the intersection.
Police said that the incident was not the first time such an incident, with one similar case involving a businessman whose car’s windshield was also destroyed sometime earlier this year.
However, this was the first time that the perpetrators were arrested due to vigorous police effort to identify and collar them. — Rainier Allan Ronda