Armed driver threatens visiting diplomat

BACOLOD CITY — The police is still facing a blank wall in their investigation into the identity of the armed suspect, who allegedly threatened with his gun a consul of a Middle East country assigned in the Philippines, during a traffic altercation in Kabankalan City, Negros Occidental.

The diplomat and his colleague, also an embassy staff, were on their way to Dumaguete City in Negros Oriental, last Sunday when a Suzuki sports utility vehicle they were riding, was accidentally bumped by a passenger tricycle at the Mabini national highway at Barangay 4 of Kabankalan City.

Superintendent Rhea Santos, Kabankalan City Police chief, said the diplomat, whose identity and his country of origin are still withheld for security reasons, disembarked from his driven vehicle and confronted the driver of the passenger tricycle.

Santos said the diplomat tried to take the key of the passenger tricycle, upon sensing that the unidentified tricycle driver was about to flee. However, the tricycle driver as he was fleeing from the scene pulled out a gun, and threatened to shoot the diplomat.

Police investigations showed that the diplomat and his colleague, who came from Manila, took a plane bound for Bacolod City. Without having escorts, the two took a land trip in going to Dumaguete City, for a still undisclosed purpose, Santos said.

The Kabankalan City police is now coordinating with the Land Transportation Office to determine the owner of the passenger tricycle, the plate number of which was already noted.

Santos raised the possibility that the passenger tricycle was operating outside of Kabankalan City, which marked its 42nd Sinulog Festival on January 21.

Police probers are now coordinating with commercial establishments to review footages taken by their respective CCTV (closed circuit television camera), which may have recorded the incident.