Thursday, September 27, 2007 Court orders arrest of Don Durano, 2 others
A MUNICIPAL Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) judge has ordered the arrest of former Danao City mayor Jesus “Don” Durano over an incident in the last elections.
Judge Josefa Pinza-Ramos, in an order dated Sept. 21, found probable cause to indict Durano for grave coercion and violating Presidential Decree (PD) 1829—obstruction in the apprehension and criminal prosecution of offenders.
The Commission on Elections (Comelec), meanwhile, dismissed the petition by Celestino “Tining” Martinez III to cancel the certificate of candidacy of Cebu fourth district Rep. Benhur Salimbangon for lack of merit.
The case against Durano stemmed from a complaint originally filed by the Danao City police. It also impleads two policemen: Chief Insp. Ritchel Carmelo Dayon, then with the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA), and PO3 Noel Taylaran of the Lapu-Lapu Police Office.
It was initially recorded as an incident of election violence and began when four personal bodyguards of then Carmen vice mayoral aspirant Sonia Pua were snatched by still unidentified men the night before the polls last May.
Rescue?
When the four were found in Danao by the city’s police forces, Durano allegedly intervened by telling the police that the four were the abductors, not the victims, and that he was going to take custody of them.
The policemen refused, saying they had to follow their own procedures. Hearing this, Durano allegedly slapped one of them, SPO1 Eddie Dalaguit, for being curt and rude.
Durano, together with his two co-accused, then proceeded to take custody of the four, hence the charges.
“Whether or not the accused is guilty of the crimes charged should be threshed out in a full-blown trial as further scrutiny of the pieces of evidence submitted by accused Durano shows that his defenses are evidentiary in nature,” Judge Pinza-Ramos said.
The four “kidnap victims” were identified as retired policeman Nito Taoy, Joseph Pepito, Harold Hermoso and Felix Bejoc.
After getting snatched in Carmen, they were allegedly taken to the house of Don’s brother, Ramon “Nito” Durano, in Guinsay, Danao City where they were allegedly mauled and stripped of their belongings.
They were then tied up and blindfolded. By midnight, they were brought out and left beside the road. Nito has denied involvement in the incident.
An affidavit submitted by Danao City Police personnel said a motorcycle driver, Ruel Baring, found the four. Baring said he saw the four by the road and, noticing that they had guns with them, sought the help of three other people to tie the four up tighter and ran straight to the police station to report the matter.
The police team, including SPO3 Ramerito Ramonida and SPO1 Eddie Dalaguit, responded to the report and found the four men still tied up and recovered four .38 revolvers.
The Danao City policemen resolved to bring the four to the station but Durano arrived.
Meanwhile, Comelec dismissed Martinez’s petition four months after the elections last May 14.
Martinez filed the petition, saying Salimbangon is not a registered voter of Agujo, Daanbantayan.
Martinez said that since Salimbangon is not a registered voter, then he is not qualified to run for the congressional seat of the fourth district.
In the petition, Martinez said that Salimbangon is a resident of Curva, Medellin, Cebu and was previously registered in the town. But he failed to vote in the 2001 and 2004 elections so his registration was deactivated.
Martinez also said that Salimbangon applied for transfer of registration from Medellin to Agujo, Daanbantayan but this was not acted upon by the municipality’s Election Registration Board.
Machine
Martinez also said Salimbangon cannot register himself as a voter of Daanbantayan as he does not have a permanent residence in the place.
Salimbangon, in his response, admitted that he was formerly a registered voter of Medellin but applied for transfer on Oct. 30, 2006. At the time when he applied for the transfer, the data capturing machine of Comelec was not working but he was assured that his application was approved.
But sometime in March 2007, Salimbangon learned that his name was not in the list of registered voters. This prompted Salimbangon to go to court and file a petition for inclusion of his name in the list, which was granted.
Comelec, in its ruling promulgated last Sept. 7, stated that the issue on the case is whether Salimbangon committed misrepresentation when he stated in his COC that he is a registered voter of Daanbantayan.
Comelec found that Salimbangon really filed an application for transfer of registration but his name was not included in the list of voters because of the defect of the DCS.
Salimbangon won over Martinez in the recent elections with a margin of only 104 votes in a bitterly-contested race. (KNR/MBG)
