October 6, 2007 | 12:00am
With several high-profile cases in the past years that ended with people dead and their killers in prison for life, you’d think Filipinos would have learned their lesson in controlling road rage. Rolito Go went against the traffic on a one-way street in San Juan and shot dead Eldon Maguan in an altercation. Go remains behind bars. A pregnant woman was killed while seated in a van whose driver had beaten another to precious parking space in a cemetery on All Saints’ Day. The killer surrendered and is in prison. Two officers, both of them alumni of the Philippine Military Academy, also figured in a fatal shootout over parking space in Quezon City.
Now the vice president of an information company and his companion are dead following a traffic altercation in Pasig. The two, Edgardo Calesares and Catherine Palmero, figured in a traffic accident with a vehicle driven by Manito Hernandez, legal counsel of Pasig City. As the drivers discussed the accident, Calesares reportedly pounded the driver’s window of the car of Hernandez, shattering the glass. Witnesses said Hernandez then drew out a gun and shot the two victims. Police found him at his home where he was persuaded to surrender. Hernandez was released yesterday after posting bail of P40,000 each for two counts of homicide.
Two lives lost and another destroyed — that’s too steep a price for road rage. But given the utter lack of road courtesy in this country, such incidents are no longer surprising. Advocates of a gun-less society will point out that the tragedy would not have happened if Hernandez did not have a pistol in his possession at the time of the accident. Because of rampant lawlessness, however, many Filipinos are unlikely to give up their guns.
The best way to discourage the use of guns for offensive purposes is by showing the public that incidents such as the one in Pasig do not go unpunished. Based on police accounts, Hernandez was within his right to defend himself from what appeared to have been a violent assault. But he went overboard, shooting to kill rather than scare or disable, and not just one but two people. Did he have a permit to carry a gun outside his home? Pasig authorities should make sure there is no whitewash in this case.
