Monday, May 12, 2008 Jonas believes money behind murder plot of arrested Mandaue school official
MANDAUE City Mayor Jonas Cortes lambasted Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna as “irresponsible” for hinting that politics may be behind the arrest of former Mandaue City College (MCC) president Paulus Mariae Cañete.
Cortes also said that linking the slay plot against him with city’s politics is “uncalled for.”
“Dako ni nga kwarta ang na-involve (This involves huge sums of money). It is millions of pesos kay ngano man gyod nga mo resort siya ani nga move nga iyang ipakawat ang mga dokumento sa eskwelahan (why would Cañete resort to stealing documents from the school),” Cortes said.
Cañete was arrested by police Thursday night in an entrapment, allegedly after handing over to Gavino Cabahug Jr. a .38 revolver. Cabahug alleged that Cañete gave him the gun in case he needed to use it when stealing sacks of documents from the MCC.
Cabahug alleged that Cañete asked him to steal MCC documents, burn them, and kill Cortes. Cañete has denied the allegations and claimed that politics was behind it. He was set free after posting a P60,000 bail.
Yesterday, Cañete met with his lawyers to discuss their next moves. When contacted by Sun.Star Superbalita, he refused to answer questions, upon his lawyer’s instruction. All he said was that he was still recovering from his arrest.
His lawyer Dennis Cañete, meanwhile, said the row between the former MCC president and Cortes will worsen if the issue isn’t settled.
Cortes had complained against Cañete for not cooperating with the administration even during the time of acting mayor Amadeo “Ading” Seno.
The court has already ordered Cañete to desist from serving as MCC president.
“I may rehire him, but he should first give us an inventory report…That is how simple the situation is,” Cortes said.
He, however, said he “has no interest in talking face to face” with a man who wanted him killed.
He said that even when Seno took over when former mayor Thadeo Ouano was suspended, Cañete no longer deposited cash collected by the school to MCC’s bank account.
“If he deposited the cash in another account..by whose authority?... He needs to get the approval of the (MCC) board of trustees (BOT),” Cortes said.
But Elmer Ripalda, MCC information technology and engineering department dean, said that with City Ordinance No. 419, Cortes lost his right to become BOT chairman. Ripalda said that under the ordinance, the mayor is a mere member of the BOT, whose members should elect the chairman from among themselves.
In a separate interview, Mandaue City Police Office Deputy Director Vicente Merzan Premne said Cabahug did not have a second sworn statement that they forwarded to the city prosecutor’s office in the filing of an illegal possession of firearm complaint against Canete.
“What second statement? All I know is that we forwarded the signed and sworn statement of Cabahug to the city fiscal.... There is no such a thing,” he told Sun.Star Cebu in a telephone interview.
Premne said that after they had Cabahug sign an affidavit in front of his lawyer, they immediately transmitted the document to the city prosecutor’s office for the filing of the complaint.
Another police official also said the unsigned sworn statement of Caba-hug may have been taken by reporters even before police completed its details.
“He was supposed to swear an oath that he understood the contents of the document before signing the affidavit,” Premne said.
City Prosecutor Ferdinand Peque said he filed the information against Canete when the requirements for the complaint reached his office.
“I only received one sworn statement of Cabahug…ambot lang ha..pero usa raman gyud to (I don’t know about the other affidavit but I only received one,) and we filed it together with the information of the charge,” he said. (AIV/With a report from JECT of Superbalita)
