C-5-Along Maharlika Highway in Taguig: Very Dangerous Incident

This e-mail is currently circulating in the internet.  My thought is… why avoid using C5?  Our taxes go to the construction and maintenance of our roads and highways.  It would be such a waste not to use our thoroughfares.  Ok…a bit off-handed.

I understand the sentiment of the author but let’s not give evil a chance.  These things happen because we let them.  Kudos to the author for raising the flag on this issue.  We as a citizen have an ever more important role in society by putting to light these kinds of issues…and getting the attention of proper authorities whose job is to secure every inch of space in this nation.

As mentioned by the author, “most taxi drivers are wary of passengers whose destination is the Maharlika Highway”, which means that this type of incident has occurred multiple times.  So what are the authorities doing?   

I am very familiar with this part of Taguig as I use it almost on a weekly basis as my through point from Paranaque to Ortigas and back.  But stories like this won’t stop me from taking this road to my destination.  But thanks to stories like this that I will ever be more vigilant.

Last night at around 7 pm, my son Anthony and his family (his wife, 2 children and their yaya), were on their way home coming from our house in Alabang. After passing through the Tollway exit in C5 coming from SLEX, at a distance of about 100 meters, all of them inside the car heard a loud sound coupled with white smoke. Alas! it was a horrifying scene seeing Yaya Virgie’s head oozing with blood continouosly. She was covered w/ her own blood.
 
A stray bullet hit the rear glass of the car and it hit her at the back of her head. (It was only this morning, upon searching for the bullet’s slug they found in the car’s ceiling stucked between it and the car’s roof. It was from a caliber 45 bullet.)   As expected, my  grandson Inigo who was being held by his yaya at that time and my grandaughter Aliya were all trembling in fear, shouting and in panic. They were all seated at the back passengers seat.  
 
Anthony stopped his car and asked some people nearby (a tanod came over) where the nearest hospital is. At this juncture, a man riding a motorcyle came to inform the tanod and my son that there’s a shooting spree going few  meters after the toll exit.  
 
Yaya was rushed by Anthony to Medical City fearing that she may be fighting for her precious life, sent to the trauma center, put into s CT Scan and results showed a big, deep wound in the scalp at the back area of her head.
 
The Taguig police came over the hospital and conducted an interview (?) and left.
 
The above incident and other horror stories in C5 will serve as a lesson to us not to pass through this highway again. Some gun-totting residents there feel that they are free to fire their guns whenever they feel doing so. Even the guards in Medical City informed us that most of the taxi drivers are wary in accepting passengers whose destination is the Maharlika highway in Taguig (I think this is the long stretch of road to the tollway after Market Market).
 
Suggest that never to use C5 again at night time, even at daytime (you see a lot of people there crossing the street), some throw stones (from nowhere near the roadside and worst, from the overpass) and at times throw spikes on the road causing flat tires on passing cars and eventually of course they are forced to stop and held up.  
 
Thank God, my family is safe including our trusted yaya Virgie.
 
You may forward this to your loved ones.   

I remember an incident along the north-bound lane of South Luzon Expressway about a month ago.  A couple of young men were walking along the center island just in front of the Magallanes apartments near Honda Makati.  A few meters ahead were a parked van with more youth (probably in their college years).  My friend and I stopped to inquire what they were doing.  One of the guys said that someone, allegedly from the apartments, shot four cars using an unidentified small firearm.  Two things about the weapon, 1) it could be semi-automatic as it hit four cars traveling at high speed, and 2) it used pellets and not bullets as no slugs were found and it shattered windows and left small pellet marks on the van’s body.

The three other vehicles involved in the incident sped off.  But these guys were not cowered.  They pulled over and reported the incident to the police.  The standing question now, what have the authorities done?