Tuesday, November 04, 2008 Carillo gets death threats
DEATH threats against a Cebu City councilor circulated at City Hall last Friday, prompting Acting Mayor Michael Rama to ask the police to investigate the matter.
City councilors started receiving the mailed letters after lunch last Friday, just when employees were going home for the holidays.
The threat alarmed some of the councilors and considered it to be a serious matter, while others wondered why Councilor Gerardo Carillo, the subject of the threat, did not receive a copy.
Carillo, a lawyer, suspects that the threat is related to his work as a councilor, and not his legal practice.
He said that it could be the case they filed against two alleged online pornography operators who were accused of molesting young boys and the forced evacuation of Sitio Dakit, Barangay Guadalupe residents, among other cases.
The letter addressed to “the family of the late Gerardo Carillo” was placed inside a white envelope, which also contained some ash and was sealed with rugby.
“Now rest in the infinite warmth and embrace of graft and corruption cancer. He will joined with the evil on the 30th of October 2008. His loving wife JB will also join with him, the friends and relatives request one thing, he will say for the sinner like him, they are perfectly will to get somebody land, and somebody money (sic),” the letter read.
It also stated that “his remains lie in state at St. Francis Funeral Homes with graft and corruption. Calamity funds will be finished and bring it to Satan (sic).”
The writer mentioned an ordinance that the public does not understand and believe in “so better kill him (Carillo).”
Carillo, who has since taken some precautionary measures, said that he will leave it to Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) Deputy for Operation Pablo Labra II to investigate the matter and to find out who sent the letter to the councilors.
As of yesterday, he still has not accepted an offer to have a bodyguard, saying he will take the time to choose one whom he knows personally.
“I know that sooner or later I will find out who the sender is... and this will continue. I know that it has something to do with the causes that I am passionate about, like what I do for the children and for the common good.
Sometimes, we can’t avoid it, there has to be forced evacuation,” he told Sun.Star Cebu.
Carillo also believes that the content of the letter is meant to mislead the recipients on the motive of the threats.
“I know it’s all diversionary. It’s not the calamity funds or an ordinance because I did not pass any ordinance lately. This has something to do with what I have been doing for the City recently,” he added.
Carillo is chairman of the Cebu City Disaster Coordinating Council (CCDCC) and the council committee on education and committee on urban planning and development.
He facilitated the filing of child abuse cases against engineer Lewis Dacanay last week after the latter was accused of molesting at least 20 minors.
He also led the CCDCC in evacuating Sitio Dakit residents from the flood-prone area they are illegally occupying.
The death threat, Carillo’s first, was brought up during the councilors’ meeting with Rama last Friday, and Carillo said that the mayor has asked Labra to investigate it. (LCR)
