Member of Dy family denies having sent contingent to ‘EDSA 3’

CAUAYAN CITY, Isabela — This city’s mayor, a member of the politically powerful Dy clan, denied having sent a delegation from the province to beef up the pro-Estrada crowd at the so-called "EDSA 3."

Mayor Faustino "Bodjie" Dy III debunked reports that he sent several busloads of Estrada loyalists to Metro Manila at the height of "EDSA 3" which ended in a violent attempt to storm Malacañang.

"If they can prove that I sent people to ‘EDSA 3,’ I’m ready to be arrested for rebellion," the young Dy said, disputing intelligence sources identifying him.

Now running for Congress in Isabela’s third district, Dy described the allegations as "a canard being circulated by my political adversaries."

The report that Dy sent people to EDSA had caused confusion among political observers here since only days earlier, his elder brothers, Rep. Faustino Dy Jr. and Gov. Benjamin Dy, had pledged all-out support for the Arroyo administration when the President visited the province.

The Dys committed to work for a 13-0 sweep in favor of the People Power Coalition’s senatorial bets in this vote-rich province.

Earlier, sources from the Military Intelligence Group here disclosed that Mayor Dy was identified as one of the politicians in the region who sent people to Metro Manila in support of the so-called "poor people’s power" at EDSA.

"Whatever we are now is our debt to the late ‘Cong Dadong’ (President Diosdado Macapagal) and for this, we can never go against his daughter’s administration," Dy said.

Dy chided those who underestimate his family’s loyalty to Mrs. Arroyo, saying that the ties between the Dys and the Macapagals date back to the time when then President Macapagal appointed the Dys’ patriarch, Faustino Dy Sr., as Cauayan councilor in the early 1960s.