PEOPLE are talking about...
* MANILA TIMES COLUMNIST KIT TATAD joining the "I'll Slap You When I See You Club" of President Rodrigo Duterte. Tatad wrote last week that Duterte underwent a kidney transplant recently. Last February 14, the President said he he'd slap the former senator and Cabinet member if he'd see him. "If you see me, avoid me. I will slap you," he said. Threatened the same way at least three times, Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña can claim he outranks Tatad as member of the "slap you" club.
* A CEBU-BASED JUDGE AND A CEBU DOCTOR recently (in a February 1-February 5 report) were stopped at the airport for bullets found in their baggage. They were not, however, detained, but they may be charged, a policy adopted after the "laglag bala" scandal.
Person of interest or suspect
Geraldine "Gaye" Yapha, in a talk with reporters last Wednesday (February 20), refused to name the politician who offered her P50 million to withdraw but said she'd tell the police who. But, she said, she was "uncertain" if the politician was the same person who had sent her a death threat.
The "Withdraw or Die" note, written on a piece of paper wrapped around two bullets, was found Tuesday (February 19) by Gay's driver in her pickup truck. Who sent it?
The "person of interest," if not the suspect, must be the politician who offered her a huge amount of cash if she would quit the race. But she was not naming him, she said, before reporters but would identify him to the police.
Whether she had done so before the cops, Gaye told Jason Monteclar of dyCM radio Thursday morning (February 21) that Toledo City Mayor John "Sonny" Osmeña had offered her cash three times in exchange for her withdrawal
She made it clear: (1) It was not Sonny himself who made the offer; it was done through intermediaries ("iyang tawo sa akong tawo") and (2) She was not certain that it was the mayor who sent the death threat to her.
From P10M to P50M
Gaye said on radio that the offers started last year after she filed her certificate of candidacy. Yapha faces Sonny O., who's finishing his second term as Toledo City mayor, and Pablo John Garcia, who had served the district for two terms. Gaye last year ran for congresswoman but lost to Representative Gwen Garcia, who's now seeking to return to the Capitol as governor, against Vice Governor Agnes Magpale. Her father, Toledo Vice Mayor Antonio Yapha, is seeking reelection and is challenged by three other aspirants, including one from Sonny's group.
The alleged offers, in the course of time since after the COC filing, began with P10 million, then rose to P25 million, followed by the offer of P50 million with the condition that her dad Antonio Jr. would also withdraw from the Toledo race, and, finally the P50 million minus the condition.
Intermediaries were lawyers
Gaye didn't mention the names of those who talked with and relayed Sonny's offer to "my man" ("akong tawo"). She gave the clue though that her "man" is a lawyer when she mentioned "client." Another source was more specific: he named the two lawyers who called up and made the offer to Gaye's lawyer and a third lawyer who talked with Vice Governor Agnes Magpale on the phone to persuade Yapha to withdraw.
Mayor Sonny already ridiculed the offer story, calling it "fake news." Which is fake? If Gaye and the driver concocted the threat, fabricating the note and using the bullets as prop, their claim was fake. The news that she and her driver told media about the threat is not.
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