Leased trucks

I WOULD like to set the record straight regarding the report printed in your paper headlined, "Trucks carrying anapog impounded."

The truth of the matter is that my two trucks that were apprehended were leased to Arturo Quimod of Barangay Danglag.

He is a legitimate businessman who is also in the hauling business.

Quimod knew that PENRO personnel were regularly monitoring his hauling business, thus
he always sees to it that his drivers secure and carry the necessary delivery receipts or their vehicles would be apprehended and impounded.

Quimod regularly gets his limestone (anapog) from the quarry of Dennis Maglasang, a holder of delivery receipts issued by PENRO.

Maglasang gives them to Quimod for a fee.

Maglasang is a diehard supporter of Consolacion town Mayor Teresa P. Alegado, who ran against me in the 2004 and 2007 elections and lost.

Maglasang and Alegado want to make an issue against me because the administration of the latter is hounded with issues of corruption and incompetence.

Maglasang had heard reports that my trucks were getting limestone from his quarry in Barangay Danlag, Consolacion.

He got very angry and asked Mayor Alegado to send the police and PENRO personnel to apprehend my trucks.

When I learned about the apprehension, I personally went to the area where the apprehension was made in Barangay San Vicente, Liloan town (the trucks and drivers were apprehended while they were delivering the limestone to a client of Quimod in Liloan).

The drivers showed to the police and PENRO personnel the delivery receipts and their driver's license to prove that they had valid and legitimate papers for the limestone.

But despite this, the police and PENRO personnel insisted on illegally holding our trucks for obvious reasons.

Considering that I had instructed my drivers earlier to drive our political leaders and supporters to Plaza Independencia for the UNA rally on that day, they did not wait for the police and PENRO personnel to release my trucks after they were made to wait for more than an hour.

So they just left the following day to get my trucks in Barangay San Vicente in Liloan, Cebu.

It is not true that my trucks were impounded.

Had the police and PENRO personnel insisted on impounding the truck despite the valid documents, I would have filed appropriate cases against them before the Ombudsman for their highly questionable and illegal conduct.

I also would like to remind Mayor Alegado to please mind the affairs and the business of the Municipality in accordance with her mandate.

As for Maglasang, he should also mind his own business in accordance with the law, otherwise, I would not stop monitoring his business activity which is being conducted without the required ECC issued by the EMB-DENR-7.—Avelino J. Gungob Sr.

Not a religious war

This is in regard to your story “UP forum speaker tackles Mindanao issue, SC image,” which was published in Sun.Star Cebu last Feb. 17, 2013.

The office of Supreme Court Associate Justice Marvic Leonen would like to clarify that Justice Leonen did not say during the forum held at the Cebu Cultural Center last February 16, 2013 that “the war in Mindanao is a religious war,” as mentioned in the story and highlighted in the photo caption.

During his speech, Justice Leonen emphasized the opposite: that it was not a religious war.

We hope that you can make the necessary clarification by publishing this letter to the editor for the better understanding of your readers of the current peace process in Mindanao.--Atty. Christine Veloso Lao, Acting Judicial Staff Head

(Reporter Gerome M. Dalipe apologizes for the error.)