Tuesday, May 27, 2008 Roderos asks task force to look into Radaza’s suspicions on Sison killing
POLICE Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Ronald Roderos wants Task Force Sison to look into suspicions raised by Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza that lawyer Richard Sison’s killing is linked to issues on tax evasion and smuggling.
Radaza’s May 23 letter to Roderos, however, drew a stern reaction from businessman Efrain Pelaez Jr., who called it a “dirty game.”
Radaza and Pelaez are locked in a bitter row over the businessman’s allegations of corruption in Lapu-Lapu City Hall. But the PRO 7 chief said that in solving a crime, especially if it is murder, police needs to consider all angles.
Radaza’s letter said that Sison’s death came as a shock and that powerful personalities in the city are behind the killing.
Pelaez, for his part, said Radaza is using Sison’s death to divert the attention of the public from the issue regarding the overpriced Asean Summit lampposts and the city’s purchased of allegedly overpriced computers.
“This is a very dirty game and a very wild imagination,” he said, adding that Radaza should substantiate his accusations.
Sison stood as counsel for Radaza in the criminal complaint on the purchase of allegedly overpriced decorative lampposts and the P23.4 million-purchase of computers that Pelaez filed against Radaza before the Office of the Visayas Ombudsman.
Pelaez said businessmen have nothing to gain from Sison’s death, neither could it solve the problem between him and Radaza because Sison was merely a lawyer and not the respondent of the cases.
“Anytime Radaza can have another lawyer to represent him in all his cases. So why make it an issue against us?” he said.
Setback
Radaza said Sison’s murder was a setback for Lapu-Lapu City in its tax collection effort because Sison, who is the City Hall’s legal consultant, took charge in organizing
a catch-a-tax-evader program. The program was started to go after big-time tax evaders and smugglers in the city and brought them to court.
Radaza has asked City Attorney Vincent Joseph Lim to lead the program’s launching. He demanded from Acting City Police Director Louie Oppus to guarantee Lim’s safety by providing him security.
“In line with this new responsibility of Atty. Lim, I respectfully request your good office to ensure the safety and security of Atty. Lim at all times,” Radaza’s letter to Oppus said.
Pelaez said he understands Radaza’s concerns. But accusing businessmen of committing murder is totally absurd and ridiculous, he said.
“We want to face Lim in court, we do not want him dead,” he said.
Lim is one of the respondents in the computer purchase complaint, which the anti-graft body has recently elevated into a criminal case.
Pelaez also said he and the other businessmen are very much willing to pay their taxes, but what they need is transparency by City Hall.
Challenge
“We welcome any publication of delinquent tax payers, including Radaza and his family and other wealthy families in the city,” he said.
He said that six months ago, he wrote Radaza a letter challenging him to come out in public with the names of people who are tax delinquents.
“They should first come clean before accusing someone as tax evader,” he said.
Almost a week after the killing of Sison, police are still trying to determine the motive behind the attack.
Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Director Patrocinio Comendador, however, said Task Force Sison, led by Supt. Pablo Labra II, has stumbled on “important leads” that they hope would lead them to the gunman’s identity.
He said that each day, several raw information reach his desk on the possible motives in the killing and that all of these are being verified.
Sison died of gunshot wounds in the head after an ambush at the corner of V. Sotto St. and M.J. Cuenco Ave., Barangay Tinago, Cebu City at 11 a.m. last Wednesday. (AIV/JST)
