What threat? police, city exec debunk 'threat' claims on GO sortie
The police was unaware of the so-called threats which prompted the cancellation of the grand rally of the Genuine Opposition (GO) senatorial candidates at the provincial capitol grounds last Wednesday.
Iloilo City Police Office (ICPO) director Senior Supt. Wesley Barayuga said nobody from the organizers of the supposed rally reported to the police about said threats.
Barayuga said they only learned about the so-called threats after the political rally was already canceled.
Provincial Administrator Manuel Mejorada told reporters around 7 p.m. Wednesday that the GO grand rally was canceled because they received a lot of text messages informing them that the rally would be sabotaged by certain groups.
Mejorada, however, failed to show the reporters, which include those coming from national media, the purported text messages.
Mejorada neither reported said threats to the police because they believed that Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. could be behind the plan to sabotage the GO rally.
The GO rally was supposed to start 7:00 p.m. As early as 3:00 p.m. the Rotary Amphitheater stage was already decorated with GO's campaign posters and streamers while a sound system repeatedly played the different campaign jingles of the candidates and even the controversial “ASO” jingle which is aimed at discrediting administration candidates Edgardo Angara, Tito Sotto, and Tessie Aquino-Oreta. The three formerly belonged with the opposition.
GO senatorial candidates Nikki Coseteng, Sonia Roco, Koko Pimentel, John Osmeña, Noy-Noy Aquino, Chiz Escudero and Loren Legarda along with GO's campaign manager San Juan Mayor JV Ejercito were supposed to appear in said rally, GO's first outside of Metro Manila.
Later the GO senatorial candidates along with their campaign manager were heard campaigning over Bombo Radyo Iloilo.
Meanwhile, top officials of the city government debunked Mejorada's allegations of a “security threat” prompting the cancellation of the GO rally at the Capitol grounds.
City Mayor Jerry Treñas who is in Manila told The News Today by phone that since 1986 none of the political parties ever complained over security problems when they held political rallies in the city.
“The city is very peaceful and there is no record of election related violence here. The same reason why Iloilo City is not included in the priority list of the Commission on Elections on election areas of immediate concern,” Treñas said.
The mayor cited that the city does not have security problems in fact, he said, police even managed to maintain peace and order during the Dinagyang and Chinese New Year celebrations where a lot of people converge in city streets.
Treñas said the capitol grounds is just a small place which is very easy to secure.
Treñas refused to comment on some observations that the alleged security threat was merely a strategy employed by Mejorada to save his face on their failure to deliver the number of people to attend the rally of the GO senatorial candidates. He just answered the question with a laughter.
Iloilo City Congressman Raul Gonzalez Jr., on the other hand, said Mejorada should not blame other people for their failure to fill in the entire Capitol grounds with their supporters. “They should not blame other people if they could not bring warm bodies at the supposed rally area,” he said.
Gonzalez said he was informed that only 15 persons went to the rally area reason why the organizers decided to have it canceled. “If they could not get the desired number of warm bodies, indi na sila magpalusot,” Gonzalez said.