Invites up on SP probe of SK's plaint vs guv's sons, top cop
Formal and official invites are underway on "resource persons" of the investigation conducted by two committees of the 9th Iloilo Sanggunian (SP).
With the list drawn up in last week's initial committee hearing, the SP secretariat is set to send out the notices this week including one for the principal cast of character, Sanggunian Kabataan (SK) Federation President, Ex-Officio Board Member Guisseppe Karl Gumban.
The SP probes are relative to Gumban's complaints against "power" brothers Fifth District Congressman Niel Tupas Jr. and Barotac Viejo Mayor Raul Tupas. Another Gumban "target" is Iloilo's top cop, Senior Superintendent Ricardo Dela Paz of the Iloilo Provincial Police Office (IPPO).
With the SP's Committee on Public Order and Safety as lead committee alongside the Committee on Good Government and Human Rights, the SP is out "to study, report and submit a recommendation" thereafter.
Gumban, the latest SP addition as 9th SP ex-officio board member, lambasted in November the Tupas brothers and Senior Superintendent Dela Paz for what he said was "swift injustice" committed by the trio against an uncle-cop.
First District Board Member Richard Garin is Public Order and Safety chairman while Vice Governor Rolex Suplico is chair of the Committee on Good Government and Human Rights.
Board Member Gumban has since called for investigation on what he said was "blatant blackmail of the right to vote of one of our youth leaders." The incident purportedly occurred and committed by the trio during the recent SK federation polls.
Further still, Gumban also called for SP support to "condemn this coercion in the strongest possible terms." And while at it, another request for the Philippine National Police (PNP) to return his uncle-cop PO3 Rodolfo Gumban back to his original detail in the San Rafael Municipal Police Station.
As alleged, PO3 Gumban was transferred to Miag-ao, Iloilo "concocted in total disregard of PNP protocols and at the very least, made mockery of pertinent laws of the land…"
In summing up his "demands", Gumban also would want Senior Supt. Dela Paz to be declared "persona non grata."
"I am disgusted by this turn of events. In my young mind, this is plain and simple blackmail! The Tupas family has tried to coerce my cousin's family into voting for my opponent," excerpts of Gumban's fiery privilege speech went.
Wasting no words and time, Gumban explained that he was delivering his speech "not only as representative of the youth in the Province of Iloilo but likewise as an aggrieved family member."
"Young as I am, in age and experience, I am not totally ignorant of the power struggles that happen in everyday politics," he began."This early in my term, I am forced to face a serious issue."
Gumban then went ahead to narrate what he said were "deplorable acts of persecution" towards an uncle Police Officer (PO) 3 Rodolfo Gumban.
"He disclosed to me that on November 3, 2007, the Honorable Mayor Raul Tupas, called up his brother, Mr. Antonio Gumban of San Rafael asking both of them to proceed as per instruction of Congressman Niel "JunJun" Tupas to their residence in Barotac Viejo," he said. "Right there and then and without preamble, they were told to support politically the Tupas family, otherwise PO3 Rodolfo Gumban will be transferred out of his present assignment and native town of San Rafael."
The request was purportedly not heeded reason why PO3 Gumban was indeed reassigned.
Worse, Gumban decried, his uncle spent the holidays away from the family – a first that they blamed on the Tupases.