Plate 7 Mystery: Gotcha!
A routine apprehension for violating the restriction on private vehicle use in the EDSA Carousel bus lane has turned into a nightmare for a lady traffic enforcer.
An insider at the Department of Transportation, which maintains the roadway exclusively for buses, revealed that the enforcer has missed work in recent days due to fears for her safety after a video went viral.
The video shows a white Cadillac Escalade with plate number 7 evading apprehension.
The incident remains shrouded in mystery after Land Transportation Office (LTO) chief Vigor Mendoza II declared the case “solved” during a briefing, where he presented the driver of the vehicle and officials of the company to which the Escalade was registered.
Angelito Edpan, the driver of the SUV registered to Orient Pacific Corp., and the company’s officials were dubbed some netizens as mere “scapegoats” as the enforcer had reported that a “very important person” was in the back seat.
According to the enforcer, this person even flashed a rude gesture at her while she was attempting the apprehension. In a bizarre twist, Edpan apologized for the incident but claimed that he did not know who his passenger was.
When asked about the incident, Sen. Raffy Tulfo confirmed that the passenger was a relative of Sen. Sherwin Gatchalian, but he declined to name the person out of respect for his colleague.
Orient Pacific Corp. lists William Gatchalian, a plastics tycoon and father of Sen. Gatchalian, and Kenneth Gatchalian, the senator’s brother, among its shareholders.
Bygone bases deal residue
A decision by the Capas, Tarlac court in a case filed by a garbage dump operator against the government has attempted to rewrite the law that grants the Bases Conversion and Development Authority (BCDA) and the Clark Development Corporation (CDC) the authority to oversee former US military bases transferred to the Philippines after the termination of the bases agreement with the United States.
The case involved the Kalangitan landfill, which Metro Clark refused to vacate, violating its contract with the CDC.
Without the contract, the landfill’s operation is now illegal, as no Environmental Compliance Certificate (ECC) or operating permit can be issued.
Although the writ of injunction technically applied only to the CDC’s issuance of an eviction notice to Metro Clark, the garbage company took it as a license to continue operations. The court not only failed to clarify the situation but also inadvertently facilitated a violation of the law.
Metro Clark’s decision to file the case in Capas demonstrated blatant disregard for proper procedure, while the court’s decision to hear the case was, at best, a display of incompetence and, at worst, an abuse of discretion.
Once the contract with Metro Clark expired on 6 October 2024, the CDC seized the opportunity to advance plans for more productive use of the landfill site. The CDC is fully within its authority to do so. CHIT