Cebu-based company confirms issuing warning against gang killings

By Ronron
October 15, 2007

A company based in Cebu confirmed on Monday that it has issued a warning to its employees about the alleged existence of a gang that kills motorists who flash headlights at its new members.

Jeoffrey Escala, Senior Manager of the Human Resources Department of Celestica manufacturing firm, affirmed that indeed, he issued the October 8, 2007 memorandum for all of its employees regarding the alleged existence of “Bloods” gang.

“I affirm that the e-mail that is circulating now is the one I issued last October 8. It is supposed to be an internal memorandum, not to be spread outside the company,” Escala told Manila Shimbun in Cebuano in a phone interview yesterday afternoon.

Manila Shimbun received a copy of said e-mail on Sunday, a day after the Philippine National Police (PNP) downplayed the contents of the memorandum and dismissed it as mere “urban legend.”

The memorandum warns people not to flash their headlights to oncoming vehicles that have switched off headlights, otherwise they could be killed. It says that this is the task given to new members of the so-called “Bloods gang.”

Escala said he issued the memorandum after receiving an email about it last October 5 from a distant relative who is an ex-seminarian.

“After reading that e-mail and recounting some local news reports that are synonymous to what is written there, I thought it would be wise to share it with our employees, particularly our drivers, so they can also be forewarned and can take extra caution when driving,” Escala said.

He said it was never meant to alarm the reader of the memorandum, nor for it to be spread outside their company, which is based at the Mactan Economic Processing Zone in Lapu-lapu City.

Told that the police has already regarded the report as “patently false” and an “urban legend,” Escala said: “It’s possible. But based on my research, there were news reports about said incident in 1990, 1993, and 1998 in the US. And I found some credence in that email because my distant relative who forwarded it to me was an ex-seminarian.”

He acknowledged, though, that the origin of the e-mail is a locale of Pennsylvania in the United States.

But he maintained that the e-mail is relevant in Cebu, and maybe not in other cities in the country, because there were prior local news reports similar to that.

He cited the local newspaper, Freeman, which has reported about the alleged existence and violent activities of “Bloods” gang, “Crips” gang, and Akhro Fraternity. The reports, he said, came out on September 21, 29, and October 4, and called the incident as “drive-by shooting.”

Escala said he is now preparing to submit a reply to the PNP, which has asked for his statement regarding the issuance of the memorandum.

But he said they will no longer conduct an investigation to determine the employee who leaked the memorandum outside of the company. “Besides, he or she may have leaked that outside out of good faith because he also want to warn his or her relatives and loved ones,” Escala said./DMS