Jueteng whistleblower’s son missing

The son of jueteng bagwoman and payoff whistleblower Sandra Cam has been missing since Tuesday night, her lawyer, former Solicitor General Frank Chavez, claimed yesterday.

Chavez said Cam’s 17-year-old son Paolo did not come home after his classes at the Airlink International Aviation School in Pasay City ended at 6 p.m. last Tuesday.

Chavez said Paolo, a freshman taking up aircraft technology, was supposed to be home at 7 p.m. that day.

"Paolo always tells his mom where he is. His classes end at 6 p.m. and he is usually home by 7 p.m. My client said they could no longer reach him and up to now there has been no word from him," he said.

Cam, who has been staying at a safehouse since her jueteng exposé, was unaware, however, that her son has not been attending classes since June 17.

Officials from Airlink said Paolo incurred more than 10 absences in all his subjects and has only been attending Physical Education class, prompting them to consider him dropped out.

"I don’t think the mother is aware. They haven’t seen each other as Sandra has been transferring from one safehouse to another for security reasons," Chavez said.

He said the family is still checking on Cam’s relatives and friends, hoping to locate the whereabouts of Paolo.

"We are still waiting for developments and might inform the police in 24 hours," he said.

However, the lawyer said they would not seek the help of government agencies like the National Bureau of Investigation "because we can no longer trust them."

Chavez stressed they are not discounting the possibility that Paolo was kidnapped.

Cam, one of the witnesses at the Senate hearing on jueteng, had testified that President Arroyo’s son and brother-in-law had received payoffs from the illegal numbers game.

She alleged that retired Chief Superintendent Restituto Mosqueda collected the money for the two when he was Bicol’s police commander.