MANILA, Philippines - The Taguig City police and the camp of mayoral candidate Rebecca Tiñga filed charges yesterday in connection with Saturday’s clash.
Tiñga; her running mate, Carlo Papa; councilor candidate and actor Ervic Vijandre; supporter Rolly Rabanal and 40 others were charged with assault on a person in authority; physical injury; resistance and disobedience upon an agent of a person in authority; and qualified malicious mischief before the city prosecutor’s office.
The police said the charges stemmed from complaints filed by city Public Order and Safety Office (POSO) personnel Edgardo Tanyag, Jalaine Datumanong, Ngura Malik and Jesus Garcia, who were wounded in the clash.
Police said the four POSO officers alleged that they were wounded after Tiñga and her supporters tried to forcibly enter the city hall last Saturday.
Election offense
Meanwhile, Tiñga filed a complaint of election-related violence against re-electionist Mayor Lani Cayetano with the Commission on Elections (Comelec). She also asked the poll body to disqualify her rival.
Tiñga alleged that the POSO personnel violently dispersed her supporters while they were doing a house-to-house campaign in Barangay Tuktukan, near the city hall.
She also named in her complaint POSO chief Kiram Pautin, Anil Galague, Christian Gregorio, Chris Cadiz and Jonjon Surell as well as unnamed POSO employees.
Cayetano’s camp will also file a complaint that Tiñga and her supporters violated election laws for allegedly instigating the clash, lawyer Lyle Nino Pasco said. Pasco represents the Nationalista Party’s Taguig chapter.
“Rica Tiñga not only exposed those POSO personnel to danger, be she has insensitively put her supporters in harm’s way,†Pasco said.