MANILA – The Philippine National Police have found the man posing as a cop who threatened motorists he was involved in a traffic altercation with on Wednesday.
According to a report on philstar.com, the PNP will file a case of “illegal use of uniform”, or violation of Article 179 of the Revised Penal Code, against Joseph Philip Lu Bautista, 36, a business consultant residing in Taguig City, whom they found on Friday following a viral post by Facebook user Pinky T. Ortiz published on Thursday.
Citing a statement from the PNP, philstar.com said Bautista confessed to being the man in the video which now has over 31,000 shares and 18,000 reactions. He admitted that he is not a policeman, but had been wearing a PNP athletic shirt at the time of the traffic altercation because it was “comfortable”.
On Facebook, Ortiz narrated that she was in the passenger seat of a car along McKinley Parkway, crossing Bonifacio Avenue on the way to SM Aura when the jeepney in front of them stopped, forcing them to stop as well. This was when a white Toyota Fortuner tried to turn right to McKinley Parkway from Bonifacio Avenue and “forced his vehicle towards (them)” to the point that “his bumper was already just about an inch away from (them).”
She opened her window and threw him a “puzzled” look, wondering how the other driver expected to “pass through (them) when obviously (their) car is already halfway ahead.”
“His bumper was directly in front of my window. It was as if he was intentionally trying to ram into us. Then he honked his horn and even turned on his ‘wang-wang (siren).’ I saw his PNP commemorative plate and thought maybe he has an emergency. But when were able to move forward he tried to overtake us and put down his window. That’s when we knew he was just an a**hole. We asked him ‘Anong problema mo (What’s your problem)?’ And he said, ‘You ran a red light! Gusto mo dalhin ko kayo sa presinto (You want me to bring you to the police station)?’ (with an American accent). Then we shouted ‘Hindi kami nag-run ng red light! Anong presinto (We did not run a red light! What precinct)?’ He kept repeating, ‘Gusto niyo dalhin ko kayo sa presinto (Want me to bring you to the police station)?'” Ortiz’s account went.
She took photos of Bautista as he threatened to bring them to the police station, and captioned these on Facebook with questions like, “Are you really a policeman?”, “Why will you hit us with your car?”, and “What will we do at the police station?”.
Philstar.com reported that Bautista denied the accusations against him.
As of press time, Ortiz was at the Taguig City police station to give her statement on the incident. The police needs this to be able to file a proper case against Bautista.
ALBAYALDE: COPS NOT ALLOWED TO HAVE TATTOOS
Meanwhile, National Capital Region Police Office Director Oscar Albayalde said of Bautista in an earlier press conference, “Walang pulis na puro tattoo ang kamay kasi bawal sa amin ang may tattoo (No policeman will have tattoos on the arm because we are not allowed to have tattoos).”
“Usurpation of authority ‘yung ginagawa niyan. Naka-cap siya na pulis. Bawal ‘yan (What he did was usurpation of authority. He was even wearing a cap for the police. That’s not allowed)!” he added.
