THE alleged harassment and intimidation allies and supporters of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña have been suffering in the hands of police since last month came to a head with the burning of a dump truck owned by Bonbon Barangay Captain Eduardo Cabriana past midnight last Thursday, May 9.
The incident prompted the mayor to call his first press conference in nine months where he once again unleashed his signature vitriol against the men and women in blue, putting them in the same category as Islamic terrorists.
“There is danger in life and property and apparently it will get worse. We want to assure that this will not hamper our result to maintain Cebu from terrorism. We have terrorism from the IS (Islamic State) now we have terrorism from the police,” the mayor said.
With two more days before the election that has him pitted against Vice Mayor Edgardo Labella of Barug PDP-Laban, it looks like Osmeña is preparing the public for worse things to come.
Unlike what’s happening in the southern town of San Fernando, though, where several public officials have been killed, the alleged violence in Cebu City has not claimed a life.
In the case of Sudlon 1 barangay mayor’s office head Amor Cabiles, she told the media that she and her family left for the neighbor’s house a few minutes before unidentified armed men started shooting at her house in Sitio Consit last Saturday night, May 4. Perhaps, she had a premonition that danger was coming. Or perhaps she was expecting it.
Around the same time two sitios away in Tabla, Dinefer Aguilar, the barangay voter’s assistance center head and a member of the inter-sitio farmer’s association, which Cabiles also heads, alleged that Tagalog-speaking men barged inside her house and forcibly dragged her out. She said one of them slapped her in the face and told her to leave the barangay or they’d return for her.
It was not clear if Cabriana, Cabiles and Aguilar reported the incidents to the police. But they were quick to go to the media with their stories, to the lament of Police Regional Office 7 Director Debold Sinas, who urged them to cooperate or, at least, show proof that the perpetrators were, as the mayor claimed, police officers.
As the police official pointed out, anyone can set fire to a dump truck.