SP Bokal Talabong’s close brush with danger

SP member Ferdinand ‘Bong’ Talabong together with local media practitioners at the Color Fun Run ‘Takbo Kontra sa Droga’ event which he l...

SP member Ferdinand ‘Bong’ Talabong together with local media practitioners at the Color Fun Run ‘Takbo Kontra sa Droga’ event which he led in Lucena city. (JOHN BELLO)

by JOHN BELLO

LUCENA CITY – A practicing lawyer and member of the Sangguniang Panglalawigan (SP) here seeks to have a security training for his colleagues to insure their life and safety from potential attackers as he disclosed his close brush with fatal danger last Nov. 16.

In a privilege speech last Monday regular session, SP member Ferdinand ‘Bong’ Talabong narrated to his colleagues in a jampacked session hall here his close brush with danger when about 5 men tried to set him up for a possible attempt on his life.

“Initially, three farmer-looking men were pointed up to me by my staff who were standing near Viewers cellphone repair center across my law office and who appeared to be waiting for my arrival. At first, I doubted it and just went ahead to my court hearing at the RTC (Regional Trial Court). But when I was already at the RTC I thought about it and got worried so I ask two policemen to accompany me aboard my car. When we got back to the office the three men standing near Viewers were joined by two others,” Talabong, still visibly shaken, told his fellow SP members.

The two policemen were SPO2 Enrico Abcede and SPO2 Melvin Sese of the Quezon police provincial office.

Talabong said the five men later moved away and discreetly, he and his two policemen-escort aboard a van followed them walking in a single file a few meters around the next block. When the men caught sight of his car and its plate number and sensing they were being followed they instantly parted ways and scampered away.

“I don’t know these men and why they would be stalking me and that experience jolted me for my life and safety and almost made me decide to abort the holding of the Color Fun Run event scheduled on Nov. 19. Later I also went to Cong. Danilo Suarez to seek his advice and he told me to take it easy,” Talabong said after conferring with Quezon police provincial director Senior Supt. Roderick Armamento and Lucena police chief Supt. Antonio Maclang.

Talabong, chairman of the SP committee on ways and means, earlier cited in his privilege speech last Oct. 2 the slaying of Quezon assistant provincial prosecutor Raymund Luna and Masbate provincial board member Junie Lopez.

In his impassioned speech, Talabong asked his SP colleagues to condemn the slaying of the 2 public officials and to pass a resolution expressing sympathy and sorrow to the tragedies.

Luna - who hails from Lopez, Quezon - is a soft-spoken and friendly man from a family of educators, according to SP member and former mayor Isaias ‘Sonny’ Ubana.

Last Monday, Ubana sympathized with his threatened colleague saying, “Ang paglilingkod sa bayan ay laging may kaakibat na peligro kaya dapat lagi tayong handa at nag-iingat.”

Ubana said that they have to study the need for security measures and additional security personnel and not just clerical and technical staff for the SP.