Sunday, May 11, 2008 Was there plot to kill Jonas?
TWO affidavits containing narrations of the incidents leading to Dr. Paulus Mariae Cañete’s arrest don’t seem to indicate that there was indeed a plan to kill Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes.
Nowhere in the first affidavit of Gavino Cabahug Jr. was it indicated that he was hired not only to steal documents from the Mandaue City College (MCC) but also to kill the city mayor.
The six-page document was unsigned and was secured from the Mandaue City Police Office (MCPO).
Cabahug started his narration with how he was contacted by Teonil Cordova for a job. The affidavit ended with Cabahug saying that he was still talking with Cañete, who was about to hand him a .38 cal. Revolver, when police arrested the school official.
But Cabahug’s five-page affidavit secured yesterday told a different story.
This time, he already mentioned that part of the job that he was supposed to do was to kill Mayor Cortes, something never mentioned in the first affidavit.
While he still talked about what went on shortly before Cañete was arrested, Cabahug now mentioned that he heard Cañete utter these words: “Patay nako ani.”
He was then asked whether there was anything he could recall in any of his two meetings with Cañete at a fastfood joint that he needed to tell the police.
“Naa sir, kadtong plano pag patay ni Mayor Jonas Cortes (Yes sir, the plan to kill…),” read Cabahug’s signed affidavit.
What the second affidavit did not indicate though was when and how the supposed assassination was to be carried out.
Other related developments:
-- Cabahug’s signed sworn statement, along with the joint sworn affidavit of Insp. Rainero Cortes and his six colleagues who arrested Cañete, was transmitted by Mandaue City Prosecutor Ferdinand Peque to the court along with the information sheet for the illegal possession of firearms charge against the former MCC official.
-- Mayor Cortes now wants his lawyers to evaluate Cabahug’s affidavit to determine what other charges they can file against Cañete.
-- Mandaue City officials allied with the opposition are suspecting that Cañete was framed up. Aside from looking closely into the incident, they will also move for the ouster of MCPO Chief Rodel Calungsud and Supt. Vicente Mersan Premne, MCPO deputy director.
-- Police officials insist that contrary to allegations, Thursday night’s arrest of Cañete was a legitimate operation.
Frame-up
Also yesterday, local officials allied with the opposition suspect Cañete was framed up by police and said they would look closely into the matter.
Mandaue City Vice Mayor Carlo Pontico Fortuna said he wants to know what really happened during the May 8 operation.
He said if it is proven that the operation was a frame up, he will join calls for Calungsud and Premne to be ousted from their posts.
Fortuna said he doesn’t believe Cañete did what he is accused of doing. Still, he said he will wait for the police report on the incident.
He said he wants to know if the policemen didn’t commit any irregularity in conducting the operation that took them days to complete.
Councilor Victor Biaño, also a lawyer and who belongs to the opposition, shared Fortuna’s sentiments.
He said that if the police really intended to stop a crime from being committed, why did they have to wait for the alleged hired gun to ask for a firearm before arresting Cañete?
“There were a lot of loopholes in their plan,” Biaño said, adding that the police merely wanted to put Cañete in a bad light.
“It’s not an entrapment operation, (it was a) frame-up,” he said.
Biaño is not discounting the possibility that the police were influenced by Cortes.
Biaño said Cañete’s lawyers are preparing a case against the police, especially those who took part in the operation.
Legitimate
Calungsud, however, maintains that the operation was legitimate.
“That’s impossible because it will destroy our image. Are we going to be happy if a crime was committed?” Calungsud said in Bisaya.
“It’s their right to file a case. That’s part of the risks involved in police work,” he said.
Cortes, for his part, told Fortuna that instead of finding fault, he should find ways to help the city become more progressive.
“How could I be involved in (Cañete’s) arrest when I do not know Cabahug or anyone behind the plot. And besides, it is against my life. Where is politics there?” he said, adding that despite the uncovered plot to have him assassinated, he will not add beef up his security.
“This would not have gone this far had Cañete simply allow an inventory of the school. What is he afraid of?” he said.
Also yesterday, Elmer Ripalda, dean of MCC’s Information Technology and Engineering department and who was with Cañete Thursday night, came to the defense of his former boss.
Ripalda said he was with Cañete during the May 7 meeting at a fast-food chain in Consolacion when he met Cabahug.
First time
“That was the first time I saw him (Cabahug) but they never talked. He looked dirty and came to our table to ask for food,” he said, adding that during that time, Consolacion policemen, three of whom in plain clothes, entered the store to verify a report about the presence of armed persons.
It was during their May 7 meeting, Cabahug claimed, that Cañete would give him the gun he could use during execution of their plan. This, however, did not happen because the policemen were around.
Ripalda also said that at the police station, he was surprised to see Cabahug and to hear a policeman’s admission that Cabahug is working with them as a civilian asset.
“It was obvious the arrest was illegal. The gun did not come from us. It came from them (policemen),” he said.
Also, Ripalda believes the arrest was a clear political maneuver by Cortes to pressure Cañete to accept an amicable settlement as suggested by the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas on their conflict on MCC’s leadership.
Cañete and Cortes have been trading charges since Canete was stripped of his post as MCC president after his service contract expired on Dec. 31, 2006.
Cañete was arrested Thursday evening along with five other MCC officials for illegal possession of firearm. Police, however, released his five companions, finding no legal grounds to implicate them.
Cañete was released late Friday afternoon after posting a P60,000 bail. (AIV/DRT/RCT)
