Marine who beat up polio victim penalized

COTABATO CITY, Philippines  – A captain in the Marine Battalion Landing Team 7 was stripped of his position for badly beating up a civilian polio victim while drunk and ordering his men to fire their guns indiscriminately to scare off witnesses the other night in a residential area here.

Lt. Col. Dorotheo Jose Jalandoni, commanding officer of the MBLT-7, said his erring subordinate-officer, Capt. Rey Torres, would also be penalized for his infractions based on the rules and the code of conduct of the Marine Corps.

Jalandoni said they found out that Torres indeed beat up 33-year-old Christopher Ballares in what he described as an “unfortunate incident” at the Bagua area here.

Torres and his men responded to a shooting near an auto shop where Ballares works as a painter. They vented their ire though on Ballares and his uncle, shop owner Hector Crecencio, just for asserting that they knew nothing about the incident.

Torres strangled Ballares, pinned him down on the ground and punched him on both cheeks and on the chest.

As witnesses approached, Torres ordered his men to fire their guns at the auto shop and at a lamppost to obscure the scene.