I saw this from my 3rd floor office window at the corner of Tomas Morato and Scout Delgado in Barangay Laging Handa, Quezon City at around 11:40 am this morning. A man in the front passenger seat of a gray Honda Civic (license plate ZRC 175) jumped out of the car as it stopped because of the traffic. Two men, the driver and another one seated in the back,ran and caught up with the first guy who now tried to hang on to the railings by the road side.
The struggle then turned into a wrestling match as the two tried to pin down the apparent fugitive. The whole drama, watched by dozens of bystanders, lasted between five to eight minutes and only ended when reinforcements in motorcycles arrived with handcuffs. Only then was the fugitive returned to the car and the whole convoy sped off.
Everyone watched in shock. The scene was all too confusing. Who were the good guys? Who was the victim? Were we watching a police arrest? Or was this an attempted kidnapping?
It certainly did not help that no one was in uniform. And that they all looked like goons.
And when it was all over talk on the street was that the man without a shirt was a suspected drug dealer trying to run away from the other men were drug enforcement agents.
We wanted to call the police but didn't know the number. We did call the barangay in the hope that they would call the nearest police station. But as usual, no one showed up until a good thirty minutes after.
Interestingly, the security guards from the two banks nearby did not interfere. In fact both banks went on emergency mode and closed down their facilities. They were suspicious of the whole thing, fearing that it was just a ruse to distract the guards so as to allow accomplices from robbing the banks.
Such is the sad state of peace and order in the country. We now can't tell the criminals from the police.
