Official public account of the story about the mauling of businessman Delfin dela Paz and his son by Masiu City Mayor Nasser Pangandaman and his bodyguards are still pending. However, it seems to me, there’s an honest blog entry by Delfin’s daughter, Bambee dela Paz. Unknowing that she was telling a usual tale of arrogance of a politician surrounded by armed bodyguards, she told how she witnessed a handful of people ganged on her 56-year old father and 14-year old brother in a golf course over simple misunderstanding.
“He attacks my father. His flightmates, maybe 2 or 3 of them, rush to his aid and beat up my father,” Bambee wrote.
“My younger brother pleads to the mayor to please stop it. To not hurt my dad. To just stop. His words still ring through my head… ‘Sorry na po, sorry na po… tama na… tama na po… (we’re so sorry, please stop)’ With his hands in front of his chest in a praying position. PLEADING. The mayor socks him in the face.”
She tried to stop the fight but she can only stop one person. “There were 4 or 5 of them attacking now,” she wrote. She recalled, just when she thought it was over, the mayor shouted to his caddy, “Hindi nila kami kilala! Sabihin mo nga sa kanila kung sino ako! (They don’t know us! Tell them who I am!)”
Cabinet Secretary Pangandaman, the mayor’s father, did not do anything to prevent the actions made by his son and company. Bambee was clear that the secretary didn’t join the mauling but he did not stop his sons even when he was seeing the bloody misunderstanding as it happened. He claims that Delfin started the brawl by continuously hitting the mayor with umbrella.
Recently, the secretary apologised about the incident but dela Paz family rejected it saying the apology was made for public and not for them.
Unlike her daughter’s, I don’t see the businessman’s account to be credible as well as the mayor’s so I won’t judge between their conflicting stories. Now let us only take stories that both parties would likely agree. I removed people’s names and positions and I came up with this abstract: “A group of leisurely players were questioned about their golf etiquette and later were attacked by few words and an umbrella. So, they defended themselves with ‘goons’ (and guns) resulting to blood and a minor’s trauma.”