PNP: Ayala tunnel road rage shooting solved

MANILA, Philippines — The road rage shooting at the EDSA-Ayala tunnel in Makati City on Tuesday afternoon, wherein a motorist was killed, is considered solved with the arrest of the prime suspect, the Philippine National Police (PNP) said yesterday.

Criminal complaints are being readied against the alleged assailant, businessman Gerrard Raymund Yu, PNP chief information officer Col. Jean Fajardo said.

“Case solved because we caught the suspect, who is under custody, and charges will be filed,” Fajardo said in a news briefing at Camp Crame.

Yu was arrested at his residence in Pasig City on Wednesday morning after pieces of evidence and eyewitness accounts tagged him as the suspect in the shooting that killed 65-year-old Aniceto Mateo, a driver of a Toyota Innova multi-purpose vehicle, along the southbound lane of EDSA in Barangay Urdaneta on Tuesday.

Fajardo said the Makati police is preparing to charge Yu with murder as well as violating the Comprehensive Law on Firearms and Ammunition and the Land Transportation and Traffic Code for the illegal use of a license plate.

Fajardo said they have a strong case against Yu as one of the .40-caliber handguns seized from him matched the bullet casing found at the scene where Mateo was shot.

The suspect also tested positive for gunpowder nitrates, which proves that he shot a firearm, she added.

“We are confident this man is the one involved,” Fajardo said.

License suspended

The Land Transportation Office has suspended Yu’s driver’s license for 90 days, LTO chief Vigor Mendoza said yesterday.

Yu faces administrative cases of reckless driving and improper person to operate a vehicle under Republic Act 4136, the Land Transportation and Traffic Code.

Yu was driving a Mercedes Benz when he reportedly shot Mateo. The LTO found that Yu is not the registered owner of the vehicle, Mendoza said.

The registered owner will be made to explain why Yu was driving the vehicle and why there were two license plates seized at Yu’s house – a green plate BCS77 and a white plate DAB 9670, which was attached to the car.

Death penalty

Meanwhile, a lawmaker is calling for the restoration of the death penalty following the recent incidents of road rage. The death penalty was abolished by then president and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2006.

“It is time we revive the death penalty and include more crimes to be punishable by death. If we are to save the future generations, we have to show them the right way of governance. Leniency and indifference will erode confidence and faith in government,” Surigao del Norte Rep. Robert Ace Barbers suggested.

Referring to Yu, Barbers asked how “did this Chinese bully get to own guns to kill helpless innocent Filipino civilians?”

He said criminals “run roughshod over our laws because they know that they can get away with it with their money and influence.” - Delon Porcalla