Manila: A resident recently commended by Manila Mayor Francisco Damagoso for his good deed for taking up cudgels for a supposed distressed local, turned out to be a criminal himself.
Jomar Alingod last month was praised publicly by Damagoso for avenging a supposed victim of sexual harassment — ostensibly the wife of his fried — when it turned out that the avenger was a petty criminal himself, having victimised at least eight people since June by either mugging or snatching valuables from them.
Last November, a viral video showed a man clinging by the side of a moving passenger jeep along Manila’s Taft Avenue and pummelling one of the passengers aboard.
The man turned out to be Alingod. In a televised interview, he claimed that he was hitting the male passenger with his fists because the latter had sexually molested his friend’s wife. No one had bothered to confirm his yarn.
Damagoso at that time had praised Alingod and made him guest at the city hall for what he had done to defend his friend’s wife’s honour.
True character
But a week after Alingod hard earned praises for his deed, his true character was exposed.
He was caught by police just several days ago for snatching and running away with the mobile phone of a 54-year-old businesswoman, Police Major Rosalino Ibay, chief of the Manila Police Mayor’s Special Reaction Team, said.
Ibay said that said aside from robbery, Alingod been booked before for mugging.
“This just only shows that we people in government, also commit mistakes. We can also be fooled,” Damagoso, a former actor more popularly known for his former screen name “Isko Moreno,” said.
It was yet to be determined if Alingod’s act of supposedly coming to the defence of his supposed friend’s wife’s honour by mauling a jeepney passenger was just a part of his modus.
