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Sunday, May 11, 2008
Opposition doubts arrest of MCC president
CEBU CITY -- Two affidavits containing narrations of the incidents leading to Dr. Paulus Mariae Cañete’s arrest don’t seem to indicate that there was indeed a plan to kill Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes.
Nowhere in the first affidavit of Gavino Cabahug Jr. was it indicated that he was hired not only to steal documents from the Mandaue City College (MCC) but also to kill the city mayor.
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The six-page document was unsigned and was secured from the Mandaue City Police Office.
Cabahug started his narration with how he was contacted by Teonil Cordova for a job. The affidavit ended with Cabahug saying that he was still talking with Cañete, who was about to hand him a .38 cal. Revolver, when police arrested the school official.
But Cabahug’s five-page affidavit secured Saturday told a different story.
This time, he already mentioned that part of the job that he was supposed to do was to kill Mayor Cortes, something never mentioned in the first affidavit.
While he still talked about what went on shortly before Cañete was arrested, Cabahug now mentioned that he heard Cañete utter these words: “Patay nako ani.”
He was then asked whether there was anything he could recall in any of his two meetings with Cañete at a fastfood joint that he needed to tell the police.
“Naa sir, kadtong plano pag patay ni Mayor Jonas Cortes (Yes sir, the plan to kill…),” read Cabahug’s signed affidavit.
What the second affidavit did not indicate though was when and how the supposed assassination was to be carried out.
Other related developments:
* Cabahug’s signed sworn statement was transmitted by Mandaue City Prosecutor Ferdinand Peque to the court along with the information sheet for the illegal possession of firearms charge against Cañete.
* Mayor Cortes now wants his lawyers to evaluate Cabahug’s affidavit to determine what other charges they can file against Cañete.
The plot to kill Cortes was not mentioned in the first and unsigned sworn statement of Cabahug that SPO1 Arnulfo Quiachon took from last Friday.
Both Cortes and Mandaue City Police Office Director Rodel Calungsod took Cabahug’s claim seriously, but Calungsod said a mere plot can not be translated into a criminal complaint.
Canete was arrested Thursday evening along with five other MCC officials for illegal possession of firearm. But the police had to release later his five companions finding no legal grounds to implicate them in Canete’s offer for Cabahug to steal documents from the MCC and kill Cortes for a P50,000. pay.
But Elmer Ripalda, dean of MCC’s I.T and engineering department and was with Canete Thursday evening, described his former boss arrest a clear political maneuver by Cortes to pressure Canete to accept an amicable settlement as suggested by the Office of the Visayas Ombudsman on their conflict on MCC’s leadership.
Canete and Cortes have filed countercharges against each other in court and at the Visayas Ombudsman since Canete was stripped of his post as the MCC president after his service contract expired on December 31, 2006.
Ripalda admitted though that he was with Canete in a fast food chain in Consolacion on the eve of May 7 and that Cabahug went to their table to ask for food.
“Didto ko unang nakakita niya, pero walay estoryang nahitabo. Bulingit na siya ug pamayhon unya nangayo namo ug pagkaon,” he said, adding that at same night Consolacion policemen, three of whom in plain clothes, also entered the store to verify a report about presence of armed persons.
May 7 was also the date Cabahug claimed in his affidavit that Canete would give him the .38 revolver he could use during execution of their plan. It did not happen though because two Consolacion policemen came inside.
Ripalda said during confrontation at the police office after their arrest in front the Fatima Parish Church in Barangay Basak he was surprised to see Cabahug and a policeman’s admission that Cabahug is working with them as a civilian asset.
“It was obvious the arrest was illegal. The gun did not come from us it came from them (policemen),” he said, adding that policemen’s claim of a plain view when they arrest Canete was a pure lie because the windshields of Canete’s Avanza car were tinted.
He said there could not be a plain view because Cabahug and Canete and the other five of them were inside the car.
Along with the information of the complaint against Canete was also the joint sworn affidavit of Inspector Rainero Cortes and his six colleagues that arrested Canete.
They claimed they learned of Canete’s plot in May 4 when Cabahug came at their headquarters at 8 a.m. with a TV news crew. Upon guidance by City Police Deputy Director Vicente Premne they carried out the entrapment last Thursday.
Cabahug was not inside the car, their joint affidavit said.
They said a man in the front seat of Canete’s car alighted to allow Cabahug to get in, but the latter chose to remain standing outside leaning at the front passenger seat as they have agreed. It was when they saw Canete handed a handgun to Cabahug that they barged in to execute the arrest.
Canete lost in court his motion for an injunction that would have stopped the MCC’s board of trustees from stripping him of his post. Aside from unseating him Cortes ordered the school closed, which prompted Canete to file a case of grave abused of authority and grave coercion before the Ombudsman’s office.
Fortuna also saw politics behind Canete’s arrest.
But Cortes told Fortuna that instead of finding fault he should find ways to help the city become more progressive.
“How could I be involved in his arrest when I did not know Cabahug or anyone behind the plot. And beside it is against my life where is politics there?” he said, adding that despite of the uncovered plot he will not add security for himself, saying risk is a component of the mayor’s task.
He said he will talk with his lawyers on what other charges that they can file against Canete using Cabahu’s sworn statement.
“This would not have gone this far had Canete simply allow an inventory in the school..unsa may iyang kahadlokan?” he said.
Cortes, who sets a chairman of MCC’s BOT, said before he won the election last year he was told that Canete had stopped depositing money in the school’s bank account.
“Asa naman diay ang kwarta nga gibayad sa mga estudyanti?” he asked.
Ripalda, on the other hand, said their group is preparing a mandamus suit against Cortes in court if he continues to defy the city ordinance that mandates the city to subsidize P5 million a year to the school beginning 2005.
SOME local officials in Mandaue City suspect Dr. Paulus Cañete was framed up by police. They now plan to look closely into the matter.
There are now moves to have Mandaue City Police Director Sr. Supt. Rodel Calungsod removed from his post because of the incident.
But police said the arrest of Cañete in an operation last Thursday night was legitimate.
Councilor Victor Biaño, who is also a lawyer and who belongs to the opposition, described the arrest as a frame up.
Biaño said that if the police really intended to stop a crime from being committed, why did they have to wait for the alleged hired gun to ask for a firearm before arresting Cañete?
"Daghan kaayo na’g butas ilang pasangil. Wala nila ma-perfect ilang trabaho ba (There were lots of loopholes in their plan)," Biaño said.
Biaño said the police wanted to put Cañete in a bad light.
"It's not an entrapment operation, (it was a) frame-up," he said.
Biaño is not discounting the possibility that the police were influenced by Mandaue City Mayor Jonas Cortes.
"Kining mga pulisa, pasipsip sa mayor," he said.
He plans to propose a council resolution urging for the removal of Calungsod and Supt. Vicente Premne from their posts.
Biaño said Cañetes’ lawyers are preparing a case against the police, especially those who took part in the operation.
Mandaue Vice Mayor Carlo Fortuna, for his part, wants to know what really happened during the operation.
He said if it is proven that the operation was a frame up, he will join calls for Calungsod and Premne to leave their posts.
Fortuna told Sun.Star Superbalita that he doesn’t believe Cañete did what he is accused of doing. But he said he is waiting for police report on the incident.
He said he wants to know if the policemen didn’t commit any irregularity in conducting the operation that took them days to complete.
“That’s impossible because it will destroy our image. Are we going to be happy if a crime was committed?” Calungsod said in Bisaya.
“It’s their right to file a case. That’s part of the risks involved in police work,” he said. He said the operation was legitimate.
Last Thursday night, police arrested Cañete in an entrapment operation as he was allegedly handing over a gun to Gavino Cabahug, 29.
Cabahug had earlier told police he was being hired by Cañete to steal documents from Mandaue City College and burn them. But before that he went to GMA-Balitang Bisdak.
A GMA-7 news crew videoed two meetings between Cañete and Cabahug, the first of which was on May 3 and the second on May 6 at Star Mart in Barangay Labogon, Mandaue City.
In his affidavit, Cabahug said he first met with Cañete at Offroad Café in Panagdait, Mabolo, Cebu City at 8 p.m. last April 28.
On April 29, they met again at Jollibee in Consolacion town.
He said he was given a sketch of the area in the school where the documents he was going to steal were kept.
"Among gihisgutan ang pamaagi sa pagkuha sa mga papeles o dokumento nga may gidaghanon nga 50 sacks, walay labot sa uban nga naa masulod sa mga cartoon boxes nga naa sulod sa nagkadaiyang lugar sa eskwehalan (We talked about how I was to steal the documents placed inside 50 sacks, excluding those placed in carton boxes in different areas in the school)," he said in his affidavit.
He went to GMA-7 last May 1 because he feared for his safety.
Last May 6, he received an initial payment of P15,000 that he showed to a GMA-7 crew after the transaction. (AIV/DRT/RCT of Sun.Star Cebu)For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star General Santos. (May 11, 2008 issue)
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