NBI hopes Ivler fans won't become next victims

MANILA, Philippines – An official of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) said yesterday they hope none of road rage murder suspect Jason Ivler’s 10,000 fans on the social networking site Facebook would meet him on the road.

Lawyer Ricardo Diaz, chief of the NBI’s counter-terrorism unit and the agency’s spokesman, said Marlene Aguilar-Pollard had been saying that her son has thousands of supporters uploading messages everyday.

“I just hope that none of them would meet Jason Ivler on the streets and become victims of road rage,” he said.

Diaz refused to comment on an investigation being done by the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) on the manner Ivler was arrested on Jan. 18.

Ivler was charged with murder for allegedly killing Renato Victor Ebarle Jr., a son of a Malacañang official, after they figured in a near-collision on Nov. 18, 2009.

He was wounded when he traded shots with NBI agents, and is still confined at the Quirino Memorial Medical Center.

Meanwhile, Aguilar-Pollard’s lawyer, Mitzell Arthur Magdaong said yesterday he would not object to a motion by the prosecution for the judge hearing the obstruction of justice case against her to inhibit himself.

Magdaong told Judge Voltaire Agas of the Quezon City Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 35 he would not oppose the motion earlier entered by Assistant Prosecutor Ulric Badiola to prevent any suspicion of partiality. Magdaong and Agas both belong to the Alpha Phi Beta fraternity at San Beda College.

Aguilar-Pollard was charged with obstruction of justice after her son was arrested in her house. – Sandy Araneta, Reinir Padua