Piqued over loss, gov strangles ‘sabungero’

BAMBANG, Nueva Vizcaya — Losing his cool after being taunted by the crowd for his P50,000 loss, Quirino Gov. Pedro Bacani strangled the owner of the fighting cock that defeated his at a cockpit arena here yesterday morning.

According to a police report, Bacani was apparently piqued when the crowd taunted him incessantly, prompting him to grab the throat of Samuel Hernandez.

A commotion ensued when Hernandez’s two brothers and Bacani’s aides, one of them a policeman, joined the fray. Cooler heads intervened and pacified them.

A few minutes later, another commotion erupted when lawyer Alexander Calulot, chief of the provincial registry of deeds, drew his licensed gun and fired it in the air thrice.

Calulot, one of the derby organizers, reportedly felt slighted over what happened to Bacani whom he had personally invited.

Chief Inspector Dionisio de Guzman, Bambang police chief, said they will file charges of alarm and scandal against Calulot for his indiscriminate firing. — Charlie Lagasca