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Wednesday, March 24, 2004
Group doing voter seminar ‘harassed’
By MIA E. ABELLANA
Sun.Star Staff Reporter
POLICE officers in Daanbantayan, Cebu, claiming to be following orders of the municipal mayor, allegedly harassed members of Center for Participatory Governance (Cpag) last Saturday.
Alvin Dizon, along with Kiwanis Club member Marit Remonde, college student Ernie Adralin and candidate for municipal councilor Gilbert Arrabis Jr. were in a chapel in Sitio Cortijan, Barangay Tapilon conducting a voter’s education seminar when policemen arrived to ask them if they had permits to hold such.
The policemen were allegedly not wearing their uniforms and some had no identification cards but were heavily armed.
They allegedly kept asking them to present a clearance from the barangay captain or the municipal mayor to hold such a seminar.
The policeman not wearing his uniform who carried a baby armalite was identified as Bebot Dupay, but Sun.Star later learned that his real name is SPO2 Jose Dupay.
His companion, who was in fatigues, identified himself as PO3 Cesar Alburo.
Not mine
When members asked Dupay why he was bringing a gun without an identification card and uniform, he immediately said that this belonged to Alburo.
The police said they were merely acting on the orders of Mayor Ma. Luisa Loot, who issued an executive order requiring those who wanted to hold gatherings to secure barangay clearance and a permit from her office.
Loot for her part, said there was nothing wrong with her order.
“I acknowledge they have rights. But so do we,” she told Sun.Star yesterday.
She explained that the order was merely to find out what the gathering was all about.
“If they asked for a permit properly, I would have issued it to them. I just wanted them to comply. Is that so hard?” Loot said.
Loot explained that it was her duty as a mayor to protect her constituents and that monitoring of groups was just her way of managing the peace and order of her town.
Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) Director Maximo Calimlim said that it was better if Cpag will file a formal complaint so that all sides can be looked into.
Area of concern
Police and the Commission on Elections have not yet finalized if Daanbantayan will be included in its list of areas of concern for the May 10 polls.
Based on the report of the Daanbantayan Police Station, Calimlim said he did not find anything wrong with just checking if they indeed had a permit.
An official report from the Daanbantayan Police Station stated that a team from the
station went to check after a concerned citizen called them up to report about a group conducting a pulong-pulong in the said barangay.
The report stated that the group was composed of members of Akbayan, a group running in the party-list polls on May 10.
Dizon, who used to head Akbayan-Cebu, insisted, though that there was nothing partisan about the gathering and that they merely wanted to educate the residents of Tapilon.
Though Arribas is running for municipal councilor under the party of Loot’s rival, he said he merely facilitated the voter’s education seminar and did not tell anyone to vote for him or members of his party.
Barug Pilipino convenor Fr. Carmelo Diola called the incident “unworthy of our dignity as Christians and citizens of the Philippines.”
“Since when is a permit required to conduct voters’ education? After all this is a democracy. The presence of armed men, not in uniform and with no identification papers is a worrying sight. Are these policemen or goons?” Diola said.
Formal complaint
Arribas said he is planning to formalize his complaint and will submit this to the Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 within the week.
“With this, I see the need for voter’s education also for the local authorities, not just the voters,” Remonde added.
Loot denied the police were goons, saying they must have been those assigned in the islands and had just arrived, which would explain why they were not in uniform.
The police officers were not in the police station when Sun.Star called.
Loot said that she did not have problems with anyone holding gatherings even if they were indeed partisan in nature.
“Bisag nangampanya pa sila basta mo-comply lang sa among balaod diri. If they only asked me, maybe I would even help them if they are indeed educating the people,” Loot said.
(March 24, 2004 issue)
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