The Eastern Police District has announced that the Malacañang reporter who was mauled and shot in Pasig City will undergo drug test after he recovers from his gunshot wounds.
Police Supt. Ganaban Ali, Public Information Officer of the Eastern Police District (PIO-EPD) also said The Daily Tribune reporter Fernan Angeles would soon be served a warrant of arrest.
Ali said they found out that Angeles is the same Fernando Angeles Javier who has a standing arrest warrant for possession of illegal drugs issued in July last year and this was confirmed by police authorities.
This strange twist in Angeles’s case did not escape the Malacanang Press Corps as it said it has become “deeply disturbed with the turn of events in the investigation.”
“We view with grave concern the statement of the EPD that Fernan will be arrested once he recovers from the seven bullet wounds that he sustained when he was attacked on Sunday,” the group said.
The press corps made it clear, “we are not trying to obstruct the investigation. But we expect that the police will be able to find Fernan’s attackers just as quickly as they tagged him as being involved in illegal drugs.”
The press corps added that it was puzzled as to why “the EPD held a press conference on Fernan’s case when the Palace categorically announced that Camp Crame would already have jurisdiction.”
Reports said an unidentified gunman along Evangelista Street in Barangay Pinagbuhatan shot Angeles several times at around 10 p.m. last Sunday (March 11) evening.
Angeles, a resident of Barangay Pinagbuhatan, sustained six gunshot wounds and is now at the intensive care unit of the Pasig City General Hospital.
Meanwhile, Chito Lozada, The Daily Tribune’s deputy editor, has been quoted as saying that Angeles may have been attacked not because of his stories in the broadsheet.
Angeles started to work for The Daily Tribune, covering Malacañang only in January this year. He used to be a reporter for several newspapers like Manila Times, Daily Globe and Manila Bulletin. He was also a columnist in a community newspaper in Rizal province.
Angeles is still in unstable condition at the Pasig General Hospital.
