The Philippine Star
A reporter for a Japanese newspaper was arrested for indiscriminately firing his gun after he found out he had lost his wallet to thieves past midnight Thursday in Muntinlupa City.
Police Officer 3 Buenaventura dela Cuesta identified the suspect as Tokyo Shimbun’s John Gilbuena, 42, married, a resident of Barangay Poblacion, Muntinlupa City.
Initial reports said that around 12:30 a.m., Gilbuena left a party and rode a bus in Muntinlupa City. He fell asleep inside the moving bus. When he woke up, he saw that the back pocket of his pants had been ripped and his wallet missing.
This infuriated Gilbuena, who alighted from the bus, stood in front of a Shell gasoline station along the National Road in Barangay Putatan, and fired successive shots from his .45 caliber pistol.
Police officers from the Muntinlupa police station’s intelligence unit, led by Senior Inspector Ernesto Eco, happened to be in the area and arrested Gilbuena, who failed to show a license for the firearm.
Charges of illegal possession of firearm and illegal discharge of firearm are now being readied against Gilbuena, who reportedly told a colleague that he fired warning shots to scare off two suspicious-looking men he saw rushing towards him when he got down from the bus.
Gilbuena is a member of the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines (FOCAP), which said in a statement that “they regret the incident and will not tolerate such behavior that may have endangered the public in any way.”
“We stand by Mr. Gilbuena as a long-standing member of FOCAP, but as this is not an issue involving press freedom, we would let the natural course of the law take its place and trust that his basic rights are protected and the investigation continues in a fair manner.”
The FOCAP board also asked the police to swiftly bring to justice those behind the theft. – Rhodina Villanueva