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Sunday, May 23, 2004
Oro mayor says police exec wants him dead
By Lizanilla J. Amarga
CAGAYAN DE ORO -- Security around City Hall has been stepped up after Mayor Vicente Emano said Saturday that a top-ranking police officer is behind the plot to have him assassinated for 1 million.
In a radio interview, Emano revealed that they are now investigating how a top-ranking police officer is involve in the plot to assassinate him and the motives behind such plan.
The said police officer was detailed in Cagayan de Oro before but has been reassigned to another area.
"But we are now watching him," he said during his Mayor's Move radio program Saturday.
The mayor said groups from the cities of Ozamis, Iligan, Pagadian and Marawi are helping him out in investigating the reported assassination attempt.
Emano believes that the plot to have him killed was mapped out being President Arroyo's point man in several negotiations for Mindanao in the past among other reasons.
According to Emano, the assassination was supposed to be carried during the campaign period.
However, it seems the plans got delayed as the group who wants him dead encountered some problems.
Emano said the assassin asked by the group to kill him for P1 million refused the job. The said assassin approached by the police officer is already dead.
The mayor is convinced that the group is still looking for the person to carry on the assassination plot. Emano feared that someone would indeed accept the offer to kill him for P1 million.
"There are even those who would accept the job for a mere P500,000 or P100,000 how much more when the offer is now P1 million," he said.
Meanwhile, Acting City Police Director Antonio Montalba confirmed the threat on the mayor's life but declined to name the source and identity of the alleged perpetrator.
Montalba assured that as far as the mayor's security is concerned everything had been taken cared of. "We are now keeping a tight watch over City Hall and the Mayor's residence," he said.
Serious
Emano said the plot is indeed serious since he learned the same report from Lugait Municipal Mayor Wellie Lim two nights ago.
The mayor said politics could be the motive for the attempt on his life. They believed that the hired killer would come from the cities of Iligan or Ozamis.
Despite this Emano brushed off the threats saying he had been receiving this ever since he was Tagoloan mayor and Misamis Oriental governor.
He however, acknowledged that the recent report is serious as it involves a huge amount of money, adding that he won't be surprised if someone will grab the offer.
"This is very serious," he said. However the mayor said he won't let these threats pass and he does not need to augment his security because his current detail is sufficient.
He also said it won't do any good for him to restrict his activities and hide in a corner just to avoid these perpetrators.
For his part Montalba insisted that they have not been lax on their security measures nor in their ongoing investigation into the source or sources of these
threats.
"We have police mobile units and teams patrolling the City Hall grounds for any remote signs of suspicious activities or characters and our people are checking into these reports to verify whether these are true or mere idle threats," he said.(With reports from Stephen Capillas) |
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