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Monday, September 26, 2005
Mayors’ league defends Tining, seeks inquiry
AFTER blaming politics for his troubles, Bogo Mayor Celestino “Tining” Martinez III may yet find character witnesses among Cebu’s politicians.
The League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Cebu chapter called for a speedy and impartial investigation on the Land Bank of the Philippines robbery and expressed its support for the Bogo mayor.
In a statement sent to Sun.Star Cebu yesterday, Dalaguete Mayor Ronald Allan Cesante, LMP-Cebu president, said they want a “swift and impartial investigation for everyone concerned.”
Martinez’s name was linked to the robbery after suspect Dindo Ancero said he was a hired goon during the elections and that he received information that the Martinez family was offering P1 million for his head.
Cesante was Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia’s candidate in the local LMP elections in July last year, a post previously held by Martinez.
Tining’s father Celestino “Junie” Martinez Jr. ran against Garcia in May 2004.
As to the Land Bank heist, Ancero also alleged that the mayor’s bodyguard, Joel Sumabong, was the robbery group’s team leader. It was Sumabong who allegedly gave the instructions on how to carry out the robbery.
Tining, however, denied knowing Ancero and Sumabong and blamed politics for the allegations.
Tining revealed his plans to run for district congressional representative after his mother’s term ends in 2007. He has heard that Daanbantayan Mayor Maria Luisa Loot is planning to run against him.
Loot is the wife of Cebu Provincial Police Office (CPPO) Director Supt. Vicente Loot, the unit responsible for the arrest of Ancero.
Supt. Loot denied politics was involved in Ancero’s revelation, saying the case against Ancero was filed even before he assumed the post of CPPO director.
Tining had hinted that Garcia may have something to do with the series of issues hurled against him and his mother, Rep. Clavel Asas-Martinez (Cebu, fourth district), but Garcia told him to answer the charges instead of blaming politics.
She has also urged him to take a lie detector test. (MEA)
(September 26, 2005 issue)
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