Interior Secretary Jonvic Remulla on Tuesday criticized Bulacan Governor Daniel Fernando over his alleged involvement in a road harassment incident at the North Luzon Expressway, describing the governor as “makahari” in his area.
“Masyado siyang maka-hari sa lugar niya,” Remulla said during a press briefing, referring to the reported road rage incident involving a presidential son’s vehicle on the night of 21 February.
“It doesn’t matter whether it’s the presidential son or not. Naging ugali na ni Gov. Fernando na pagnabiyahe siya ng NLEX ay apat na lane ang occupied niya. Na walang pwedeng mag-overtake. So madami na kaming nakuhang complaint na ganun. Masyado siyang makahari sa lugar niya,” Remulla said.
He said he called Fernando for about 10 minutes on Sunday morning to confront him about the report and referred the case to the Land Transportation Office.
According to Remulla, the Police Regional Office Central Luzon inspected Fernando’s firearms licenses and vehicles. Authorities are also tracing one firearm that the governor reportedly declared missing.
Remulla denied threatening Fernando.
“As far as I know, there was no threat. I only had his firearms licenses examined to see which were valid and which were not. But, as far as that, we did not raid his house. There was nothing like that,” he said.
A show cause order from the LTO obtained by the Daily Tribune described the incident as a road rage case involving a four-vehicle convoy — a Toyota Land Cruiser, a Toyota Hilux and two Toyota Hi-Ace vans — allegedly associated with Fernando.
According to the order, the convoy was overtaken by another Toyota Land Cruiser and then pursued it, allegedly boxing it in and forcing it to stop.
“Approximately ten men alighted from the convoy vehicles, surrounded the (Toyota Land Cruiser that over took them) vehicle, and allegedly harassed and threathened its driver and passenger. The men were allegedly armed. When an Enforcer approached to check the disturbance, the men abruprtly re-boarder their vehicle and fled,” the order read.
The vehicles were reported to be registered to a municipality in Bulacan.