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Wednesday, June 08, 2005
Oroquieta City councilor nabbed for 'masiao'
By Ryan Rosauro
OZAMIZ CITY -- A councilor of Oroquieta City may face dismissal from the service following his arrest Sunday after authorities found evidence of his involvement in masiao, an illegal numbers game widely prevalent in western Mindanao.
Counciclor Zaldy Daminar along with wife Bassie are now detained at the Provincial Police Office.
Daminar is the highest elected official in Zamboanga Peninsula to fall in the police campaign against masiao operations.
Last February, a Provincial Government employee known to be a masiao coordinator (equivalent to jueteng's cabo) was arrested and charged.
Daminar's arrest came barely a month after a shakeup in Misamis Occidental's police command that led to the replacement of its provincial director and the police chiefs of Tangub and Oroquieta cities.
Dismayed over their dismal performance in curbing masiao, local leaders petitioned the relief of the said police officials from the province.
Elements of the Philippine National Police and the Provincial Anti-Crime Team (Pact) raided Daminar's high-fenced posh residential compound around 9 p.m. Sunday.
They discovered masiao paraphernalia notably tally sheets along with a drum of coins believed to be bet money.
Public knowledge
Authorities also recovered paraphernalia in using shabu and an aluminum foil with residue of a crystalline substance also believed to be shabu.
Misamis Occidental Governor Loreto Leo Ocampos said Daminar operates masiao as a financier in the province's first district, which comprises of the capital city of Oroquieta and eight towns.
Ocampos, who oversees the work of Pact, said Daminar had been in masiao for a long time already but was hard to pin down as he constantly changed his style of operating when he knew authorities were trailing his tracks.
Ocampos also hinted his police connections might be a factor in the impunity he once enjoyed.
Ordinary folks throughout Oroquieta had widely known that Daminar built a fortune out of his being a masiao financier.
Now owner of several businesses, he is touted to be a future mayoral contender.
Belonging to Lakas-CMD party, he placed third in the race for councilors in the 2004 polls, up from a lower rank that he got in 2001.
Taunting
Daminar's sheer longevity in the trade coupled with his position in government made him "some kind of untouchable," said Ocampos.
He related that Daminar even flaunts this image by attending the public hearings on a proposed provincial ordinance to add penalties for masiao operators on top of those prescribed by a national law. "He had been taunting us," he said.
Oroquieta mayor Jorge Almonte praised authorities for the arrest saying it "serves as a stern warning for others."
Interviewed by a local radio while lurking in his detention cell, Daminar admitted to his masiao involvement.
Apart from being charged with a criminal complaint Monday, Ocampos said he has also instructed the Provincial Government's legal team to prepare an administrative case against Daminar that will lead to his ouster from the city council.
"His demeanor does not fit his office," Ocampos said. (Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro/Sunnex)
(June 8, 2005 issue)
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