He thought he was just invited for questioning but was shocked that upon reaching the Cebu City Police Office (CCPO), he was arrested for carnapping.
Labangon Barangay councilman Rudy Tabasa was arrested by policemen from CCPO’s Station 10 who came in the company of a personnel from the city’s General Services Office (GSO).
In a phone interview, Tabasa told Cebu Daily News that that at around 8 p.m. of Friday, a certain Kenneth of GSO and four policemen came to see him in his house.
He said they first asked him for the whereabouts of the vehicle that was supposedly assigned to him, a Toyota Hilux, but was later told to come with them to the police station.
He said he was hesistant at first to go with them but later relented.
Tabasa said he got scared when, after arriving at the CCPO headquarters at Camp Sotero Cabahug along Gorordo Avenue, he was told to proceed to the Cebu City Medical Center (CCMC) for a medical checkup.
“Ila guro kong prisohon kay ila man kong gipamedical check up. Mao mana ilahang procedure,” he said. (Perhaps, they wanted to put me in prison since they asked me to go through a medical check up. That is their procedure)
Tabasa said he immediately called Cebu City Councilor-elect Joey Daluz III for help.
Tabasa is one of the 47 barangay officials who were named in a complaint filed by Acting Mayor Margarita “Margot”” Osmeña before the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas for not returning their city-issued vehicles.
Tabasa said that he has a Toyota Hilux under his name but he never used it for personal errands.
He said the vehicle is being kept at the barangay hall since it was the one that controlled its use.
He said the barangay would even allow the city’s Department of Social Welfare Services to use the vehicle everytime DSWS would borrow it.
Daluz, reached for comment, decried the arrest. He said he and other leaders of Team Rama, including Councilor-elect Joy Pesquera, were now trying to get the councilman out of the CCPO headquarters.
He said Tabasa did not receive the memorandum requiring him to return the vehicle. And since the memorandum receipt (MR) for the vehicle was not yet cancelled by GSO, the arrest was illegal.
GSO head Ronald Malacora could not be reached for comment.