Sunday, January 27, 2008 Mayor says he deposited huge money for Al Khobar By Malu Cadeliña Manar
KIDAPAWAN CITY -- City Mayor Rodolfo Gantuangco admitted having deposited sums of money to a high-profile extortion syndicate operating in central Mindanao but defended it as part of "covert" legitimate anti-terror operations.
Some members of the City Council have criticized Gantuangco when they learned that he deposited P100,000 from his peace and order funds to the account of a certain Nacir Abison, allegedly one of the leaders of the Al Khobar Terror group.
During Thursday's regular session, Councilor Greg Yarra, chairman of the committee on ethics and public accountability, said Gantuangco's act has violated government's policy of "no ransom" or "no payoff."
"This is also aside from the fact that the money that was deposited had come from peoples' taxes," he said.
"Payment to a terror group should not become a reason for using peace and order funds of the LGU. This fund should be used to maintain peace and order and not as payment to a terror group," Yarra said.
The payoff, he said, has sent a "different" signal to the business sector in the city. "This means the City Government is not bent on crushing the terrorists, in fact, the mayor has even given them money coming from the city's coffers."
Gantuangco disputed Yarra's claims by saying he has "well-founded" reasons for doing it.
First, he said, after the payoff, he executed an affidavit, which the local Philippine National Police (PNP) used in filing the case against Abison and other two Al Khobar operatives, including 23 high-profile personalities.
The case was filed last January 18 and five days later, Judge Rogelio Naresma of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) here issued warrants of arrest for Abison and his cohorts.
They were tagged as behind the November 22, 2007 bombing in a KMCC mall here that killed a mall employee and injured eight others.
Second, he said immediately after the case was filed, the foreign remittance account of Abison was frozen.
"That, in itself, was our big accomplishment in our drive to fight terrorism. I, as the city's chief executive had helped the PNP, AFP, and other intelligence units in pinning down Al Khobar operatives, when I executed such affidavit after we made the deposits," he said.
The money, he added, has become "collateral" or a guarantee that a covert, yet legitimate anti-terror operation would be successful.
The mayor disclosed that aside from him, there were other establishments, including big bus companies plying the central Mindanao routes, big government-owned and controlled corporations, and local government units all over the country, which had deposited money to Abison's account.
"But none of them was brave enough to execute an affidavit that the Al Khobar has extorted from them hundreds of thousands of protection money. They all fear for their lives," he said.
Gantuangco meantime is bent on finding who was responsible in making public a highly confidential or classified document.
"We were surprised why such document has reached media, when it was already marked 'classified.' Because of an irresponsible act, the legitimate operations of the police and the military against a certain terror group had been exposed and placed the lives of our operatives at risk," he said.
The document was made public through a local radio broadcast on January 22, a day before the RTC issued an order to arrest members of the Al Khobar and suspected bombers.
"We will make that person accountable for his/her action," he added.
