NATIONAL Bureau of Investigation (NBI) in Northern Mindanao denied Tuesday a report that it raided the house of a newly-proclaimed city councilor in Cagayan de Oro on Monday.
Lawyer Patricio Bernales, NBI-Northern Mindanao deputy regional director, said he had no knowledge of the raid and that the bureau had not conducted any operation on Monday.
"We deny that report. If there was a raid at the house of Pepe Abbu, I'm sure it was not conducted by NBI," Bernales told Sun.Star Cagayan de Oro.
On Monday, reports were circulating that Abbu's house was raided by NBI in connection with the discovery of pre-shaded ballots and other election paraphernalia, including compact flash cards of Precinct Count Optical Scan (PCOS) machines, at the city's landfill and several junkshops on Friday last week.
Abbu ran and won as city councilor in the first district of Cagayan de Oro. He ran under the PaDayon Pilipino of Vice Mayor Vicente Emano, who also won as mayor.
According to reports, the NBI raided Abbu's house as it was allegedly the venue of the pre-shading operation of the election ballots.
On May 10, several voters in the city were complaining that they received pre-shaded ballots wherein the names of local candidates from the other party had already been shaded.
But Bernales denied the raid, saying the NBI did not even conduct any investigation regarding the recovered election paraphernalia.
"Daghan naman nag-investigate so magkayagaw na if motampo pa mi," he added. (Annabelle L. Ricalde)