Planned case vs Osmeña suffers major blow

CEBU CITY — The electioneering charge which the camp of re-electionist Mayor Alvin Garcia was planning to file against former mayor Tomas Osmeña appeared to have suffered a major blow.

This developed after the three supposed witnesses, who were presented to City Hall reporters last Friday, refused to execute affidavits against the former mayor.

Barangay Sudlon II chairman Jessie Jayme earlier reported that his tanods and several residents saw Osmeña and his supporters giving out cans of sardines to barangay folk who attended the Siete Palabras or Seven Last Words in the community.

According to Jayme, a streamer with the words "Vote Tommy Osmeña for Mayor" hanged from the cross where the actor playing Jesus Christ was supposed to be nailed, Jayme said.

The three witnesses, William Moraca, Violeta and Glenn Ramirez, however, said last Friday that none of them actually saw Osmeña that day.

Moraca and the Ramirezes claimed they were among Sudlon II residents who received cans of sardines purportedly from the supporters of Osmeña.

"Dili man gyud siya (Tomas) ang nag-distribute gyud sa sardines (Tomas was not the one who distributed the sardines)," Ramirez said, referring to the 50 boxes of sardines reportedly brought to the barangay.

"Si Paclibar man ang naghatag namo (Paclibar was the one who gave them to us)," Violeta said, referring to former Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force chief Benjamin Paclibar who is reportedly campaigning for Osmeña.

Ramirez said it was Paclibar who asked the more than 1,000 people attending the Good Friday activity to form a line so that they could start giving out the cans of sardines. Each family reportedly received three cans of sardines.

Moraca, for his part, said he does not know anything about the allegations against Osmeña.

He said Jayme fetched him at home and asked him to go with him to the city.

Moraca said he had no idea that he would be presented to the mayor and the media to testify against Osmeña.

Still, Garcia insisted that he would initiate the filing of an electioneering case against Osmeña.

Osmeña earlier said that he was prepared to answer the electioneering charges.

He said the issues being raised by Garcia’s camp against him were intended to divert the attention of the public from allegations that Jose Navarro of the Association of Barangay Captains met with the city’s election officers and discussed the possibility of using dagdag-bawas (vote padding-shaving) in the elections to favor a senatorial candidate. Navarro is supporting Garcia. — Freeman News Service