Brent-Subic trustee has previous run-ins with MYC ‘boat boys’

An American trustee of the Brent International School in Subic charged with attempted homicide for beating up a parent, has had run-ins with "boat boys" of the Manila Yacht Club (MYC), of which he is a member.

The so-called boat boys maintain boats of MYC members.

In fact, the Boat Boys Association of the Philippines filed a petition in 1996 asking the MYC to ban Curtis Jay Perry, 51, from the club after he allegedly mauled two of its members on separate occasions for not immediately attending to his personal needs.

The group claimed that the MYC acted on their petition and banned Perry from the club for six months, which the boat boys’ group deemed was too short a period.

Bonifacio Tayong, 46, recalled that sometime in 1981, Perry allegedly slapped him inside the MYC premises when he failed to respond to his call.

"Nagsumbong ako sa management ng club at nag-sorry lang si Perry (I reported the incident to the club’s management and Perry merely said he was sorry)," Tayong said. "Malakas kasi siya sa mga directors dito (He has much influence on the club’s directors)."

Perry was then working at the US Embassy, prompting the boat boys to suspect that he was an agent of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The boat boys said there were other incidents involving Perry but the most serious one happened in 1996 when the American expatriate allegedly choked and banged the head of one Lope Mata on the wall. Mata’s slow response to Perry’s order reportedly triggered the incident.

Contacted for his side, Perry said he doesn’t remember Tayong nor having slapped him sometime in 1981. "I’ve been a member since 1980 and I don’t recall slapping anybody or having a dispute with anyone in 1981," he said.

Perry, meanwhile, remembers Mata. "Yes, I remember Lope Mata. Yes, I remember there was an incident that I grabbed him for failing to perform his duties. I’m not sure what year it was because I was already living in Subic in 1996," he said.

He said the MYC board of directors even conducted an inquiry "as a result of that misunderstanding."

Perry said the MYC board slapped him with a month’s suspension in using the boat house facility, even if he had apologized to Mata and the board. "If I am influential, I wouldn’t be given any penalty at all," he said.

The boat boys’ group said Mata decided not to file a complaint against Perry because he was then following up his application for a seaman’s book and feared that Perry could exert his influence and block his application.

The boat boys said they just stay clear of Perry whenever he is at the MYC. "Umiiwas na lang kami para di kami mapagdiskitahan (We just make an effort to avoid him so we won’t get picked on)," one of them said.

They said that Mata has returned from abroad and is considering reviving his case against Perry.

Eduardo Prieto, a parent of two grade schoolers at Brent Subic, has lodged a case of attempted homicide against Perry with the Olongapo City prosecutor’s office for allegedly mauling him on the night of Dec. 17 at a local pub.

Words were exchanged between the two after which Perry asked Prieto to step outside the pub and there "assaulted" him, Prieto said in his affidavit.

In their affidavits, witnesses said Prieto was mauled as Perry’s three friends — Americans Steven Ouellet and Donald Hill, and Briton Andy Wrighttown — allegedly watched. Later, they said Wrighttown stepped in to restrain Perry.

Although bloodied, Prieto was able to rush himself to the James Gordon Memorial Hospital where doctors required him to undergo medical attention for two weeks because of several contusions and abrasions on the face and body, including hemorrhage of the anterior eyeball and lacerated facial wounds.

Perry has hired a lawyer to advise him on legal matters. He refused to say if he would file a counter-complaint against Prieto even if he claimed that it was Prieto who attacked him.

He said he, too, suffered injuries from the incident and has a medico-legal certificate to prove this.

Perry said he stands five feet 10 inches, not six feet two inches. "Ed, who (stands) six feet one inch and weighs 240 pounds, is even taller and heavier than I am," he said.