3 nabbed over public drinking spree
Three persons were arrested last Friday night by the police after being reprimanded by the barangay captain for drinking inside the basketball gym in Barangay San Roque, Cebu City.
The suspects were among the 70 participants of the drinking session and basketball league in the area.
Edwin Luga from Barangay Tejero, Elmer Jose from Barangay Tisa and Alex Petagara from Barangay Punta Princesa were arrested for resistance and disobedience to a person in authority, malicious mischief and for violation of City Ordinance 1929 or for drunkenness.
San Roque barangay captain Lidiore Miranda said that while roving, they saw a group of men drinking outside the basketball gym.
He then advised them to stop drinking in the public place but later on saw a case of beer being brought out from the gym.
He said that a group of men rented out the gym for a basketball practice. He then found out that the place was used to host a basketball league and drinking session instead.
He said that he announced on stage that the drinking session be stopped since the gym is intended for physical fitness and sports activities.
When he went outside, the same group of men still continued drinking outside, thus prompting him to bring them to the police.
When Miranda and his company came back to the gym around 9: 20 p. m., he discovered that the group who rented the area did not follow in their schedule from 6 p. m. to 9 p. m. and still continued with their illegal activity.
When he reprimanded them again, he said that the people had gone wild and shouted at him, saying “di ni imong barangay. Amo ning kwarta. Komunista ka.”
He went back to his car but the people who were allegedly under the influence of alcohol threw stones at his governmentowned vehicle, hence the damage. Luga, Jose and Petagara were among them.
He then decided to seek the help of police to arrest them. Miranda, however, said that it took the police station two hours to respond to the alarm since they were still conducting a checkpoint at that time and no additional personnel was available for Miranda’s concern.
He further said that he will raise this concern to the Police Community Advisory Council since it could be possible that the lack of police personnel in the station hampers their response to alarms.
Meanwhile, the suspects were detained at the Waterfront Police Station detention cell. They were later brought to the Cebu City Medical Center for a liquor test where they were proved positive of intoxication.