CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Misamis Occidental Provincial Board Member Eduardo Cebedo has denied allegations from Bonifacio, Misamis Occidental Mayor Samson Dumanjug during a recent Senate hearing that he was a victim of inhumane acts by authorities when he was extracted from the municipal hall on June 16.
Cebedo, spokesperson of Misamis Occidental Gov. Henry Oaminal, said authorities never pointed a long firearm and covered Mayor Dumanjug’s face with a “malong” (native cloth).
MISAMIS Occidental Provincial Board Member Eduardo Cebedo answers questions from the media during a press conference in Cagayan de Oro City on Saturday, August 5. (Franck Dick Rosete)
“He also has an allegation; the worst was the injection thing. That’s been highlighted there (in the Senate hearing). You can also see in the video that it did not happen," Cebedo said in a press conference here on Saturday, August 5.
He said no personnel was carrying a long firearm during the operation and a malong was applied only to Dumanjug’s chest to prevent him from falling down as authorities were trying to go down from the second floor.
The hearing conducted by the Senate Committee on Public Order and Dangerous Drugs on August 1 and 2 presided over by Sen. Ronald dela Rosa tackled the alleged inhumane, violent, and highly irregular acts perpetrated by the members of the Philippine National Police and unknown persons against the mayor.
Dumanjug reiterated in the hearing that he was badly treated by the Incident Command System team. His companions during the incident echoed his claim.
Representatives from the operating team present during the hearing debunked Dumanjug’s allegations.
Cebedo said Dumanjug was not being dragged out of his office during the extraction and the mayor tried to hurt himself using scattered broken glass after the team forcibly entered, prompting them to "restrain" his movement by asking him to sit on a wheelchair.
Joey Ampong, executive officer of the Provincial Disaster Risk Reduction Management Office (PDRRMO), told Sen. Jinggoy Estrada that a wheelchair was used due to concerns on the mayor’s health.
MAYOR Samson Dumanjug of Bonifacio, Misamis Occidental and Mayor Charlotte Dumanjug-Panal of Tambulig, Zamboanga del Sur answer questions from the media during their visit to Cagayan de Oro City Mayor Rolando Uy’s birth anniversary on July 5. (Franck Dick Rosete)
Ampong did not confirm Cebedo’s claim.
Estrada said that the operation was "humiliating," considering the number of operating personnel needed just to extract a 70-year-old and unarmed mayor.
Mayor Dumanjug and his wife, Vice Mayor Evelyn Dumanjug, were suspended by the Misamis Occidental Sangguniang Panlalawigan starting May 30 for "betrayal of public trust."
However, Mayor Charlotte Dumanjug-Panal of Tambulig, Zamboanga del Sur, the daughter of Mayor Dumanjug, said the basis of the preventive suspension was the previous case of her parents which had already been reversed and exonerated by the Office of the President.
"Now the question is, what is the basis of their new case because the said case has already been reversed and exonerated, which served as the root or mother case?" Panal asked in a July 5 interview when she visited Cagayan de Oro City during Mayor Rolando Uy’s birthday.
Cebedo clarified that prior to the reversal of the Office of the President, there was a presumption of regularity in the suspension that Dumanjug spouses allegedly violated during the time that the suspension was still in effect.
"That’s why there is now the third case, the usurpation of authority, because they wouldn’t leave during the time when the suspension was implemented," Cebedo said.
The preventive suspension of the Dumanjug couple, Cebedo said, was due on July 30. But on July 27 this year, the six-month suspension for the latest case was served.
First Councilor Ricky Bulahan and second Councilor Loloy Cuizon were installed as mayor and vice mayor of Bonifacio, respectively, in an acting capacity.