Please take time to read. A must-read for all Aklanons. :) *** WHO HAS THE AUTHORITY? Why: Security guard, accused and beaten By: Maria Solita Zaldivar-Guzman Last July 12, an incident of abuse happened at the office of the security manager of Crown Regency Hotels and Resorts, wherein a security guard assigned to the resort was accused of theft. Deonilo Quitalig, a 20-year-old licensed security guard and a scholar under the TESDA-DOLE scholarship program, was said to have stolen the money of Ryan Tungala, his fellow security guard and his roommate at the said hotel. Instead of reporting the incident to the head guard or security officer from Global Asset Protection Inc. to which both of them are directly employed, Tungala filed the complaint to Crown Regency’s security manager. Tungala assumed that Quitalig was the one who stole his money because they shared the same room. Security Manager Boiser Jan Raquel, a retired SAF who is known to be very firm about honesty and discipline, called Quitalig to his office morning of July 12 and beat him in front of Head Guard Joseph Molo, who tried to stop Raquel but failed to do so because Raquel is well-built and is in high authority. Quitalig was said to have forced to admit that he committed the theft to save himself from the beating. Despite accusations without actual proof, Raquel automatically assumed that Quitalig was guilty of the crime. After the beating, he lost consciousness and was brought to the aid of the security officer. Security Officer Anthony Fuentes was mad about the beating incident. He called Matt Aaron Guzman, manager of Aklan Vanguards Security Training School, Inc. to relay what happened, and from the background of their phone conversation, Guzman could hear Quitalig wailing in pain, tremendously crying, alternately calling out for his mother and asking Raquel to stop with the beating. The once cheerful young security guard was still in the state of shock. Personal Opinion Matt, my husband, called me up to tell me about what had transpired. I also learned from him that the same incident happened before. Charlo Mationg, also a security guard posted at Crown Regency, was accused of theft. However, unlike Quitalig, there was evidence of him stealing that was captured in a CCTV camera. Mationg’s father went to our office to seek for help but there was nothing much to be done because of the evidence. Before Mationg was brought to prison, he was also beaten by Raquel. A case was not filed because Mationg could not afford to file a case against him. Despite being guilty of the crime, Raquel was not in the position to physically abuse him. I immediately searched for the telephone number of DOLE and sought advice on how to handle the matter at hand. A DOLE officer advised me to call the Public Attorney’s Office because the case was beyond the jurisdiction of the Labor Code. The officer told me that human rights violation was committed and a case should be filed against the abuser. When I called up PAO to seek legal counsel, I was told that there would be lawyers who would handle the case, saying that the incident was very troubling and needed immediate action. PAO asked Quitalig to get a Certificate of Indigence to avail of the PAO service. I also sought help from my mother, Amarie Zaldivar, by requesting her to ask her friends who are lawyers on which grounds a case could be filed against Raquel. My mom advised me to have Quitalig get a medical record and file a police blotter. These requirements were complied, and while in the police station, Quitalig suddenly said that he would not file a case against Raquel for fear of what he could do to him. My father-in-law, retired Police Inspector Moriel Guzman, immediately rushed to Boracay to come to the lad’s aid and to make sure that justice would be served. According to former Inspector Moriel, Quitalig’s face was badly beaten. The abuser might be wearing a ring because his face was somehow distorted. He kept on mumbling to himself, words which uttered self-blame and self-pity. He was a weakening embodiment of how the poor and the not very well-versed of the laws under our Constitution are abused and deprived of justice. My father-in-law was determined to have the case given absolute justice. Raquel prompted Tungala to file a counter case of theft against Quitalig should the latter decide to pursue the case against him. Moriel talked to Tungala, reminding him of the goodness that Quitalig showed him. They were classmates; Quitalig was the one who helped him get a job, and in return, he would betray his friend just like that. Tungala, however, promised to witness against Raquel and to state in court that he was only forced to file a case against Quitalig in a worst case scenario. He resigned from Crown Regency the following day and vouched to help his friend in any way he can. When Moriel was in Crown Regency, security guards who were trained under Aklan Vanguards went to him, feeling worried that they would experience the same fate as their comrade. It was a heartbreaking scene and in Moriel’s mind, he would have asked them to resign if only there were available jobs for them. Personal Analysis Raquel is working under Crown Regency but he has no direct supervision under the security guards employed by GAP. Should there be cases of misconduct, guards of higher authority under GAP should be the ones to handle the situation first. Given that Raquel has authority, he is not in the right position to do that to Quitalig, to Mationg, or to anybody. He should have known it better because he was a SAF. In what he did, he has proved himself a disgrace to his fellow SAFs because clearly, he has not learned any virtue and principle from his years in service. Molo said that Raquel had gathered the security guards from Aklan Vanguards, explaining his side of the story and apologizing on what happened to Quitalig. I am not convinced that he apologized because he felt bad about what he did but rather because he knew that a case was going to be filed against him. This time, someone finally stood up, and there were many people to back Quitalig up. How dare Raquel abuse our locals in our own town when he himself is not an Aklanon? Who vested him the power to impose justice in his own hands? Justice is not yet solicited for because Quitalig is still innocent until proven guilty. I hope that Quitalig will gather all his guts and will push through the case. I, along with Matt, Moriel, the police officials of Boracay Police Station, the Aklan Vanguards security guards, his family, friends, and relatives, will help him in ensuring that he will get justice for what happened to him. Quitalig is a scholar of TESDA and DOLE. He is a security guard, trained under Aklan Vanguards Security Training School, Inc. and employed under Global Asset Protection Inc.. He is from Balete. He is an Aklanon. I hope every person who belongs to the same affiliation will unite in this fight. Many cases like this have happened and have only been forgotten; many are still happening, and many will continue to happen if we don’t stop this now. NO TO ABUSE. NO TO INJUSTICE. JUSTICE FOR QUITALIG.
Posted on: Sun, 21 Jul 2013 10:09:51 +0000
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