Armada dares Tupas to name visitor gambling lords
A challenge has now been issued by Vice Governor Roberto "Obet" Armada to Governor Niel Tupas for the latter to name the two gambling lords who reportedly paid Capitol a visit recently.
With the now infamous offer for at least P1 million in monthly shares disclosed and purportedly rejected by the Governor, Armada in an interview with members of the Capitol Press said the story does not end there and should not end there.
What is now needed, the Vice Governor stressed, is for Tupas to identify these gambling lords particularly since blatant disrespect was shown by these two unknown Capitol visitors. Worse, he said, the fact that they supposedly made the offer to Iloilo's highest official constitute a clear crime with the two should have been arrested or at least the public warned against their presence in the community.
"How dare them approach the Governor or the Provincial Government and make that illegal offer," Armada said in a The News Today interview. "And so I make this challenge to Governor Tupas, name these men lest he be misunderstood by the people that the offer was made in the very confines of the Governor's Office because first, he is a friend thus they are comfortable with them or second, he is a political ally."
And these "lords" of illegal activities have no place in a decent Ilonggo society, Armada continued so much so that the Capitol must not condone nor encourage alliances with them.
Will he push then for an investigation? The Vice Governor replied in jest, "why not? Seems to me the Sanggunian Panlalawigan has penchant for investigation anyway."
Armada made the comment relative to the controversy now generated by the SP move to investigate the complaint of Manuel Mejorada, top Tupas aide which alleged ghost employees under the Vice Governor's payroll.
The Governor in a statement with Capitol reporters announced the gambling lords' visit and the corresponding offer. He outrightly rejected them, he boasted, because illegal gambling has no place in Iloilo.
Pressed by the reporters on the identities of these 'lords,' Tupas refused saying such is confidential.
"The point here is actually not the offer that was rejected. The bigger issue is the fact that first, the declaration and admission of the Governor that there was an offer and these were known to him as gambling lords and second, the fact that an offer is tantamount to bribery," Vice Governor Armada continued.
Illegal gambling activities remain a problem and concern in the peace and order campaign of the Iloilo Provincial Police Office (IPPO). Recent days saw arrests in Fifth District towns even as sporadic betting were also reported elsewhere.