No Nur plot, just a wayward truck

FORT STO. DOMINGO, Sta. Rosa, Laguna — They thought a midday gunfight with loyalists of detained former Moro National Liberation Front leader Nur Misuari, out to spring him out of this camp, was about to begin when they heard something plowing through the perimeter fence.

In full battle gear, members of the 4th Regional Mobile Group rushed to the spot, at least 200 meters from Misuari’s detention cell, and cautiously aimed their high-powered firearms at the "enemy."

The "enemy," it turned out, was a wayward six-wheeler truck that smashed into the fence of this Special Action Force (SAF) camp.

Although Superintendent Manuel Manalo, 4th RMG head, said the incident was an ordinary vehicular accident, truck driver Ryan Edison Menpin and his helpers, who all suffered bruises, were nevertheless subjected to tactical interrogation.

Menpin said they were traveling eastward, back to Nueva Ecija from Tagaytay City where they delivered white sand, when the brakes malfunctioned.

To avoid colliding with vehicles ahead of them, Menpin put on the truck’s head light and kept on blowing the horn. The truck, however, bumped into an owner-type jeep and sideswiped a Toyota Corolla, until it plowed through this camp’s concrete perimeter fence.

The truck’s owner, Virgilio Pangan, of Sta. Rosa, Nueva Ecija, offered to rebuild the damaged fence, even as police filed charges of reckless imprudence resulting in damage to property against Menpin.