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Thursday, February 24, 2005
Oro mayor knew about bomb plots
By Aurea A. Gerundio and Danilo V. Adorador III
* Oro Mayor Emano said in a radio interview that he talked with bombers and pleaded with them to spare his city
* CIDG 11 to probe Emano's claim about V-Day bombings
* Claims the 10 bombers were in CDO and even called them by phone before the group left for Davao and General Santos
THE Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) 11 said it will check on the report that Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Vicente Emano withheld information on the recent Valentine's Day bombings in the cities of Manila, Davao and General Santos.
"Dapat makipagtulungan siya sa police kung may nalalaman siya (He should cooperate with the police if he knows something)," said CIDG 11 chief Superintendent Jose Pante, who just knew about the report from the reporters' inquiries.
Meanwhile, Councilors Emmanuel D. Galicia Sr. and Leonardo R. Avila III said that Emano should be invited for investigation if indeed he holds information essential in the ongoing investigation of the bombing incidents on Valentine's Day.
"He maybe able to shed vital information to the police and will help in the eventual arrest of the bombing suspects," Galicia said.
Avila said that if the report is true, then Emano is "harboring terrorists by asking concessions from them."
"He should be investigated. It's like telling criminals that it is okay for them to do their crimes in other places provided his properties are not touched. It is downright selfish and insensitive. I wonder how he feels about the 12-year-old boy that died during the explosion," Avila said.
Sun.Star Cagayan earlier reported that Emano admitted in an interview over a local radio station that he had prior knowledge of the bombing incidents in the cities of Manila, Davao and General Santos on Valentine's Day.
"I had prior knowledge of the bombings. In fact, our city and the city of Iligan were included in their list, but I pleaded (with them) not to include our city. With knees bended on the ground, head tilt toward heaven, hands crossed in pleading that our city be spared," Emano reportedly said in the dialect during the February 17 interview over DXIF Bombo Radio.
The transcripts of the interview are reportedly being prepared already for the Philippine National Police at Camp Crame to start the inquiry with Emano.
Emano was reportedly interviewed about the bombings on February 17 and 19.
In Emano's February 19 interview, he reportedly claimed that the 10 bombers were in Cagayan de Oro before the bombing incidents and that he even called the bombers by phone.
City Administrator Wendel E. Avisado, who was interviewed by Sun.Star Cagayan reporter, said the Cagayan de Oro residents would judge Emano on whether he did the right thing in the incident.
"It was incumbent upon him to share this information, if he has any, to the neighboring cities or to any authorities. He should have alerted us," an irked Avisado told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro.
Avisado however said Davao City already coped with the Valentine's Day bombing and that the city is in a "business as usual" mood.
"Of course, as the economic center of Mindanao, we can't go anywhere but move forward," Avisado added.
During the airport and seaport bombings in Davao City a few years ago, the two mayors also figured in a row after Emano chided Duterte for challenging the terrorists to bomb his city.
In recalling the previous discord between the two city mayors, Avisado said, "it was presumptuous" of Emano to do this because he didn't know the affairs of Davao City.
Avisado said Emano was to blame for the "war of words" because the mayor placed Duterte "in a bad light."
Meanwhile, Cagayan de Oro City's lone opposition Councilor Zaldy Ocon, who is also a native of Davao City, said Emano should expect "hell" from the Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte.
"Duterte would surely be fuming mad over this and it's possible that Emano would be declared persona-non-grata not only in Davao City but throughout the entire country," Ocon said.
Ocon earlier said that Emano is facing investigation by the Philippine National Police following his claims made in the radio interview after the bombings.
Ocon said this was the information given him by Senator Aquilino Pimentel Jr., who is also from Cagayan de Oro.
The legislator-broadcaster also cited an interview with Presidential Adviser on the Peace Process Eduardo Ermita in which the official supposedly chided Emano for keeping the information to himself.
Ocon told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro that the investigation will be undertaken by the Philippine National Police at Camp Crame.
He said the inquiry would start as soon as Emano's February 17 and 19 transcripts of interviews at dxIF Bombo Radio are all secured.
"Emano must be crazy. It seems he doesn't know what he's doing," Ocon said in the vernacular.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (February 23, 2005 issue)
Write letter to the editor.Click here.
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