GERALDINE Yapha is the former mayor of the second-class municipality of Pinamungajan in the midwestern part of the province. She is a medical doctor like her father, former congressman Antonio Yapha Jr., vice mayor of Toledo City.
Yapha, “Gaye” to her friends, is running for a seat in the third congressional district against Pablo John Garcia, who had served the district for two terms, and Toledo City Mayor John “Sonny” Osmeña.
According to her, her driver found a “Withdraw or Die” note written on a piece of paper wrapped around two bullets in her pickup truck last Tuesday, Feb. 19.
Yapha admitted that it was the first time she received a death threat in her 20 years in politics.
She also said Osmeña, through an intermediary, offered her P50 million to withdraw from the race. However, she did not say he was behind the death threat.
The octogenarian, though, belied her claims, and described the threat as “ridiculous” and “fake news.”
Meanwhile, in the southern town of San Fernando, Mayor Lakambini Reluya put out a bounty of P2.2 million for any information that would lead to the mastermind and killers of her husband, Panadtaran barangay captain and the town’s Association of Barangay Councils president Ricardo Jr., and two municipal employees.
The three died during an ambush in Talisay City last month that also injured the mayor and two others.
Reluya also announced that she had no intention of withdrawing from the mayoral race.
Not to be outdone, Reluya’s opponent, Ruben Feliciano, also offered P3.5 million for the capture of the killers.
The businessman from Mindanao has denied any involvement in the ambush or attempts to kill the Reluyas, while he continues to accuse the mayor of being a “drug protector” and of “using the money of self-confessed drug lord Franz Sabalones” to win the 2016 elections.
Reluya has scars to show for her traumatic ordeal, while Yapha has yet to undergo a threat assessment to determine if the death threat she received was real.
Both, though, are undeterred, willing to put their lives on the line “to serve” the people.