This takes the cake. Or should we say, “This takes the rice cake”?
“In a classic case of mistaken identity, the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) on Tuesday, Jan 14, arrested the wrong ‘David Tan,’ an alleged rice smuggler, a few hours after David Tan Bangayan, a legitimate businessman, went to see Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Leila de Lima to deny his involvement on the smuggling case,” reports Rey E. Requejo in Manila Standard Today.
Bangayan’s lawyer, Atty. Benito Salazar, had clarified, “The warrant is against David Tan. My client is Davidson Bangayan.”
The report indicated: “De Lima tried to wiggle out of the mess by saying that there was an outstanding arrest warrant against a David Tan issued by the Regional Trial Court of Caloocan City Branch 126 in October 2010. This was in connection with a pending case for pilferage of electricity and theft of electric transmission lines before the Caloocan City Regional trial Court. De Lima said she immediately ordered the NBI to turn over Bangayan to the court considering that the complaint against him was bailable.” Then again, it’s not even clear right now if Bangayan is also the real respondent named in that case.
In earlier reports, De Lima had speculated that “David Tan” and “David Tan Bangayan” is most probably one and the same person.
Well, it turns out that he’s not.
In fact, Bangayan’s other lawyer, Atty. Laurence Arroyo, said that “even Davao Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said there is no Bangayan involved in the illegal shipment of rice in Mindanao.”
The report revealed that “Duterte said the Bangayans are a family of well-known businessmen in Davao who had never been involved in rice importations.”
Screengrab from a GMA newsclip
