Mayor accuses rivals of rumormongering

CAGAYAN de Oro City Mayor Vicente Emano has accused two of his fiercest political rivals of making up stories about his supposed health problems, saying the malicious "tales" smack of his detractors' desperation.

Mayor Emano's absence last week fueled talks that he was airlifted to Manila because of lung cancer. The chain-smoking mayor sought to dispel the rumors over the weekend and, on Tuesday, named Misamis Oriental Governor Oscar Moreno and former Cagayan de Oro Congressman Rolando Uy as the sources of the "gossips".

"Palakaw man kana sa akong mga kaatbang sa politika nga si Oca ug si Uy kay wala na siguro silay lain mahimo. Gusto man nila siguro nga mamatay na lang ako (These stories are being manufactured by my political rivals, Oca and Uy, perhaps because they had nothing better to do. Maybe they want me dead.)," Emano told dxIF Bombo Radyo, where he regularly gives interviews.

Governor Moreno immediately denied he was responsible for spreading stories about Emano's alleged lung cancer, saying he had better things to do than mind somebody else's illness.

"Dongkoy is getting paranoid. He seems to be very afraid of the world; soon he will be afraid of his shadow," the governor said in a statement e-mailed to Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro. "I'm not interested in his medical conditions, much less talk about them."

Moreno countered that Emano may have concocted the controversy "to attract attention," something that Uy's spokesman, Enrico D. Salcedo, agrees with. Uy did not immediately return calls for his comment.

"Kini man gud atong mayor, mahilig sa atensyon. Siguro wala nay lain nga mahuna-hunaan, nag-drama na lang," Salcedo told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro.

(You have to know that we have a mayor who likes drawing attention to himself. Maybe he has no more drama up his sleeve.)

Salcedo said Kagay-anons have the right to know the medical conditions of public officials like Emano.

Speaking on his weekend radio program, Emano said he was forced to squelch the rumor about his alleged health troubles after reading about it in a local paper (not Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro).

The mayor appointed Vice Mayor Ian Caesar E. Acenas as officer-in-charge from Wednesday to Friday last week, during which City Hall was rife with talk of Emano's health conditions.

But the mayor said his out-of-town trip last week had nothing to do with his health, though he admitted to having undergone a medical checkup recently. Hospital tests gave him a clean bill of health, he added.

Emano said he was in Davao City with some of the City Council members to attend a meeting with local government chief executives around Mindanao.

The rumors gained currency partly because Emano's party mates had provided different reasons for his disappearance.

Asked about Emano's absence, Vice Mayor Acenas gave a different reason, telling this paper last week that the mayor was on a business trip in Manila to meet Vice President Jesus Joseph Maria Binay. Accompanying Emano, Acenas said, were the city's newly elected barangay chairpersons. (Annabelle L. Ricalde)