Joavan claims 4 men harassed him

CEBU, Philippines - For once it seems the tables have been turned. Joavan Fernandez, the controversial adopted son of the mayor of Talisay City, who is suspected of several previous complaints of harassment, came to the police station to claim that he himself was harassed by four men the other night.

Joavan told police that four men repeatedly kicked the car he was driving before one of them fired a gun into the ground to intimidate him.

Senior Insp. Errol Francis Deveyra, officer-in-charge of the Talisay City Police Station, said that according to Joavan, he just entered his car, a red Isuzu bighorn with license plate numbers YEZ-460, after buying food from a restaurant in Barangay Tabunok when the incident happened past 11 p.m.

Joavan said he was about to drive the car which he had parked at a flyover when four men whom he did not recognize went beside his car and started kicking it without any apparent reason.

Shortly after that one of the attackers pulled out a gun and fired a warning shot to the ground as if to scare him. The four of them casually walked away and left the place, Joavan said.

The incident reportedly frightened Joavan and he sped off and went directly to the police station in Barangay Poblacion.

Deveyra said Joavan only had the incident recorded in a police blotter. He could not file any complaint because he could not identify the alleged perpetrators and there were no witnesses to the incident, Deveyra said.

The police official said his men are investigating the matter.

Joavan, 31, has gained notoriety because of his several brushes with the law, the latest of which was last week when he allegedly pretended to be a traffic enforcer and apprehended a Public Utility Jeepney driver for allegedly traveling out of line and having illegal license plates.

Jerrick Balodo, 31, earlier said Joavan caught up with him in Barangay Cansojong from South Road Property and arrested him. Joavan, who was then armed with a gun, allegedly confiscated his driver’s license.

Balodo was then taken to the Vista Grande Subdivision where Joavan demanded P5,000 for his release. Joavan, however, was reportedly forced to turn Balodo over to the police when his father arrived.

Despite the several capers he is involved in, Joavan remains free because the complainants usually back off from filing charges or later withdraw them.

Mayor Socrates Fernandez, a Roman Catholic defender, has been accused of overprotecting his son by covering up the many incidents his son has been involved in. — (FREEMAN)