Jaworski son charged for gunrunning, shootout

MANILA, Philippines - A son of former senator and basketball legend Robert Jaworski was charged yesterday for gunrunning and engaging police officers in a shootout in Makati City on Saturday.

Ryan Jaworski, 40, and his driver, Joselito Au, 52, were charged with multiple attempted homicide, direct assault and illegal possession and selling of firearms before the city’s prosecutor’s office.

Jaworski is under heavy guard at the Makati Medical Center (MMC), where he is confined for a gunshot wound in the right leg.

Au is being held at the Regional Police Intelligence and Operating Unit (RPIOU) of the National Capital Region Police Office (NCRPO).

NCRPO director Chief Superintendent Joel Pagdilao said the charge of selling firearms is non-bailable but “we are still awaiting the outcome of the investigation of the Makati prosecutor.”

The younger Jaworski was apprehended for possession of illegal drugs in 2000, indiscriminate discharge of firearms in 2002 and engaging in a shootout with the son of a wealthy Mandaluyong businessman in 2004.

An informant arranged the sale of an M4 Armalite rifle from Jaworski for P120,000.

According to RPIOU chief Superintendent Melchor Cantil, Jaworski and two other men arrived in Barangay Pio del Pilar in a maroon Nissan Sentra (WNE 425) at about 12:40 a.m. Saturday but drove away before the deal could be consummated.

The suspects shot it out with the police officers, hitting two, before managing to escape.

According to Pagdilao, his men later received a call that Jaworski was confined at the MMC due to a leg wound.

The police officers rushed to the hospital, arrested Jaworski and Au and confiscated their vehicle, parked in the hospital’s basement.

Their companion, Ferdinand Parago, escaped and is the subject of a manhunt.

Police officers recovered a slug on the floor of the front passenger seat and a Benelli shotgun in the back compartment.

They also recovered 19 cartridges fired from an M16 Armalite rifle, 14 spent shells from a 9mm pistol and two slugs of a .40 caliber pistol at the scene of the encounter.