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BACOLOD CITY, Philippines – Pulupandan Mayor Magdaleno Peña warned candidates of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC) in Negros Occidental that they could be put under surveillance by the intelligence unit of the Philippine National Police (PNP) in Western Visayas.
Peña, a member of NPC, made the warning after their ancestral house in Barangay Ubay in Pulupandan town was raided by the Camp Crame-based Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).
The investigation crew was backed up by the elite Special Action Force troopers of the police. They recovered 89 assorted high-powered firearms, explosives and thousands of ammunition.
The Pulupandan mayor claimed the firearms had licenses, while the explosives were “planted” by the police.
He and 9 others, including two policemen, were charged before the Provincial Prosecutor’s Office of Negros Occidental for illegal possession of firearms.
Peña, in a statement, warned other NPC bets against the possible surveillance, following the incident in his home.
He also said he would file counter charges against the police.
Tactical message
In a press statement, Amos Sierra of the Apolinario “Boy” Gatmaitan Command of the New People’s Army (NPA), meanwhile, said the raid on the ancestral home of Peña is a “tactical message” that Negros Occidental is no longer under the hold of the “Cojuangco-Alvarez-Peña camp.”
Business tycoon Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, allegedly Negros’s “political kingmaker,” backs the gubernatorial bid of Alvarez.
Read: Can you defy Danding and win in Negros polls?
Sierra called the raid a brilliant move by the camp of Negros Occidental Governor Alfredo Marañon Jr. He also added that the whole incident is part of the preparation of Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) Secretary Mar Roxas’s presidential bid in 2016.
Peña is a close relative and staunch supporter of Vice Governor Genaro Alvarez, who is running for governor under the NPC.
Peña is not seeking reelection as Pulupandan mayor. He is, however, fielding his son and also a NPC member, Miguel, for the post with no apparent opponent. – Rappler.com
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