Thursday, May 24, 2007 Talisay councilor-elect ‘hit female worker on the head’
BARELY a week after he was officially declared as Talisay City councilor-elect, Dennis Basillote figured in a rude confrontation with a female staff member of outgoing Vice Mayor Aberdovey Belleza.
Menchulyn Dagode, 30, of Barangay Lagtang, Talisay City, accused Basillote of hitting her on the head during an argument in Belleza’s office past 10 a.m. last Tuesday.
In turn, Dagode said she pushed Basillote and kicked him, forcing three City Hall workers to step in and pacify them both.
She identified the three as Rolando Rocaberte and Renato Abellana, both job-order employees, and William Tirado, a regular worker.
In a calm manner, they reportedly herded Basillote outside to avert any further confrontation.
Dagode is bent on filing a formal complaint against Basillote. Among her witnesses, she said, is lawyer Modesto Cajita, Belleza’s consultant.
But Basillote denied that he struck Dagode’s head with his fist. He added, though, that he is willing to face whatever complaints Dagode would file against him.
Text messages
Reporters learned that the clash stemmed from a nasty exchange of text messages between Dagode and Elaine Echavez, Basillote’s niece and a staff member of Councilor Ignacio Luis Jordana’s office.
Their text messages reportedly included some taunting references to the May 14 election results, where Belleza lost in his vice mayoral reelection bid, while Basillote got elected as councilor.
They both ran under the banner of the Kampi-Alayon party of Mayor Socrates Fernandez, who was reelected.
According to Dagode, their personal conflict began when Echavez allegedly kept on sending text messages to her live-in partner, using different mobile phone numbers.
Sun.Star tried but failed to get Echavez’s side as of press time, as nearly all the City Hall employees didn’t report for work yesterday afternoon following a phoned-in bomb threat.
Dagode claimed that Echavez, in her text messages, seemed to portray Belleza as a sore loser.
She texted back to “remind” Echavez that her uncle, Basillote, got elected only because of financial support from Belleza.
In the 2004 elections, Basillote lost to Belleza, who ran as an independent candidate, in the four-way vice mayoral contest.
Interviewed separately, Basillote admitted the text message angered him when he learned about it from Echavez.
Mayor Socrates Fernandez tried to reconcile the two parties yesterday, to no avail. Basillote is an executive assistant to the mayor. (GC)
