6 THURSDAY, DECEMBER 9, 2010
Most Memorable Metro stories
ment institutions.
Exemplary cop
Just this year, Parañaque City
Police Officer 2 Jomel Caronan
risked his life to foil a robbery
single-handedly. On June 28,
though off-duty and just about
to file a leave of absence to take
care of his newborn child, Caro-
nan took on three robbers who
tried to grab P500,000 from
Santiago Dangan who was on
his way to a bank in Binondo,
Manila.
For his bravery, he was given
a spot promotion and a plaque
of appreciation by the National
Capital Region Police Office
who hailed him as a role model.
HEARTBREAKING NEWS
Promising lives lost in sense-
less crimes or accidents.
One such case was that of
band member Antonia Marina
“Tara” Santelices, an Ateneo de
Manila University political sci-
ence graduate, who was shot in
a jeepney robbery.
Tara and her best friend Joee
Mejias were heading home to
Rizal province in a jeepney on
Aug. 6, 2008, when a man pulled
out a gun and declared a holdup
on Imelda Avenue, Cainta.
The gunman fired and hit
Tara on the left side of her fore-
head, rendering her comatose.
Brought home after a lengthy
stay in the hospital, Tara even-
tually succumbed to heart fail-
ure in June 2009.
The NBI is still looking into
the criminal case two years af-
ter the Cainta police declared
the investigation closed after
shooting down Orlando del
Rosario, Tara’s suspected as-
sailant, on Sept. 15, 2008.
But Joee and another jeep-
ney passenger said Del Rosario
was not the gunman.
Tara’s story has inspired
friends and family to lobby for
justice against street crimes.
She would have turned 25 last
August.
Hit by car on campus
Another Atenean’s life,
fourth-grader Julian Carlo
Miguel “Amiel” Alcantara, was
cut tragically short in an
unimaginable traffic accident at
the Ateneo Grade School (AGS)
parking lot in 2009.
Amiel was walking to the
family car with his nanny and
INQUIRER METRO
GRIEVING MOM A woman is
inconsolable after she loses a loved
one in a fire at the Asociacion de
Damas Filipinas orphanage.
two siblings after school on Feb.
24, 2009, when a van hit him.
The boy died from head injuries
on the way to the hospital.
Police surmised that the van
driver, Theresa Torres, who was
supposed to pick up her son at
the school, could have pan-
icked, and stepped on the accel-
erator pedal instead of the
brakes. Torres was charged in
the Quezon City Regional Trial
Court with reckless imprudence
TELLING THE FILIPINO STORY TO THE WORLD
resulting in homicide and seri-
ous physical injury.
A week after the incident,
changes in the traffic scheme at
AGS were implemented follow-
ing a petition by concerned par-
ents. A marker now stands in
Amiel’s memory at the AGS
parking lot.
UNUSUAL
Then there are the cases that
we remember for their sheer
oddity and uniqueness.
Taxi driver Socrates Manalad
accused his 16-year-old passen-
ger of stabbing and trying to
rob him. But his alleged victim,
a minor, accused him of trying
to rape her.
Manalad staggered into the
Libis, Quezon City police sta-
tion before dawn on Oct. 3,
2010, with a kitchen knife stuck
into his back. He complained he
was stabbed by his passenger, a
girl and her male companion,
who tried to rob him.
A few hours later, Manalad’s
alleged attacker, the 16-year-
old girl, walked into the police
station accompanied by a secu-
rity guard. The guard told po-
lice that he found the “fright-
ened” girl hiding in an office on
From page 5
Mercury Avenue.
The girl claimed that after
she got into Manalad’s cab, the
driver stopped the vehicle and
started molesting her. She said
she managed to escape by stab-
bing him with a kitchen knife
which she had on her. A charge
of attempted rape was filed
against Manalad while the girl
was charged with attempted
robbery and homicide.
Then there was this story of
an 18-year-old coed who had to
jump off a cab to escape from a
cab driver who had abducted
her in a fit of rage.
In November 2008, Valerie
(not her real name) flagged
down the cab and asked the
driver, whom the police later
identified as Primitivo
Sarmiento, to take her home to
Sta. Mesa Heights, Quezon City.
When they got there, the girl
gave the driver a P1,000 bill. He
claimed, however, that she gave
him only P60. When they start-
ed arguing, Sarmiento drove off
with Valerie still in the cab. The
girl escaped by jumping out of
the vehicle. Sarmiento was later
arrested in his house and
charged with estafa and kidnap-
ping in the Quezon City Prose-
cutor’s Office. Police discovered
he had other pending cases in
the courts and the NBI.
FUNNY
We end this list with the case
of a fake Fil-Am conning police-
men into giving him money after
he reported that he was robbed.
“Nathan Santos Smith”—af-
fecting an American twang—
appeared at the Quezon City
Police District in Camp Karingal
and reported he was robbed by
a taxi driver after he arrived
from the United States late
evening of Jan. 25, 2009.
He later confessed that his
real name was Richard San-
galang, born and bred in Capas,
Tarlac province, and that he
made the story up. A sympa-
thetic investigator was so taken
in he gave Sangalang P2,500 to
tide him over.
After he was found out, police
charged Sangalang with using a
fictitious name, fraud, perjury
and estafa. With reports from
Tina G. Santos, Julie M. Aure-
lio, Nancy C. Carvajal, Jean-
nette I. Andrade, Miko More-
los, Niña Calleja and Kristine
Felisse Mangunay