Tuesday, August 03, 2004 Daycare man: Mayor whipped me with a pistol
CEBU CITY -- A daycare center worker is accusing Sta. Fe, Bantayan Island Mayor Roger Ilustrisimo before the Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas of "pistol-whipping" him during a benefit dance last month.
Catalino Veliganilao said the mayor hit him hard enough to knock out three of his teeth. He would have fallen to the ground had he not grabbed a chair for support.
In a phone interview Monday night, Ilustrisimo denied he did such a thing to Veliganilao. He also said he had no pistol during their argument.
"I didn't carry any gun that night because I was taking my wife to a hospital in ambulance. She was suffering from diarrhea," he said.
From the hospital, the mayor said, he went to where the benefit dance was held and confronted Veliganilao and tried to explain to him that the disco violates the town's ordinance regulating such affair.
But Veliganilao was persistent and argued with him, Ilustrisimo said.
"I did not issue a permit because they held it on Wednesday and we have an ordinance regulating discos as a way to control crime because crimes usually happen during discos," he said.
The mayor described the complaint as harassment because Veliganilao is a supporter of his political foe.
Veliganilao, who visited Sun.Star Monday, said that when all he could show was a barangay permit, the mayor got irked and hit him with the butt of a pistol.
In his affidavit-complaint that will be submitted to the anti-graft office Tuesday, Veliganilao said he is an accredited day care worker of Sta. Fe Heights Day Care Center and is receiving an P800 honorarium from the barangay and P500 from the town.
The center's PTA officers last July 28 came up with the benefit dance and a search for the prince and princess of the day care center to raise funds.
But after the coronation of the winners and when the benefit dance had started, Ilustrisimo reportedly arrived on board the municipal ambulance and asked PTA president Victoria Desabille for a permit.
Veliganilao showed a permit issued by Barangay Pooc Captain Ithamar Espinoza, a son of Jose Espinoza, Ilustrisimo's rival in the last elections.
"To my shock and surprise, the mayor, without any provocation on my part, suddenly hit me in the mouth with an undetermined pistol. Three of my teeth were knocked out and the upper left portion of my mouth sustained a wound," part of the affidavit read.
Veliganilao said at least two eyewitnesses can prove his allegation. Also, many people saw the incident as the mayor did it at the center of the basketball court, which served as the dance hall.
He said he was only able to get a medical certificate from the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center in Cebu City as he was not attended to by the doctors in the Bantayan District Hospital and the Bantayan Rural Health Center.
The officers of the hospital and the center reportedly told him to seek help instead at the Sta. Fe rural health center, an advice he refused to take as the doctor in the town is under the employ of the municipal government.
Veliganilao said he will ask the anti-graft investigators to charge Ilustrisimo with physical injuries and grave misconduct. GAN/AIV
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