Road rage suspect Vhon Martin Tanto would need a good lawyer to defend him from the charges filed against him in court, a Palace official said yesterday.
Presidential Communications Operations Secretary Martin Andanar said Tanto, a former Army reservist who allegedly shot and killed gaming assistant Mark Vincent Garalde during an altercation in Quiapo, Manila last week, would go through due process.
“Well, dadaan iyan sa tamang proseso. Under investigation na iyan, nahuli na ‘yan ng Philippine National Police at he will need his lawyer also to defend him,” Andanar said over government radio.
Meanwhile, Garalde would have not been killed had onlookers stopped the fight early on, Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada said yesterday.
Estrada said he learned from investigators that several men were even cheering when Garalde and Tanto were fighting on the street before the suspect killed the victim.
“CCTVs can only do so much,” Estrada said. “This would not have gone into a shooting fight if the people who were watching and cheering had tried to intervene and stop it and separated the two,” he stressed.
“Better yet, they should have called the police or the nearby barangay,” Estrada said, adding that the Manila Police District is fully capable of responding to any emergency in a moment’s notice.
(Genalyn D. Kabiling and Betheena Kae Unite)