Quezon City candidate Bingbong Crisologo arrested on eve of election day
MANILA, Philippines (3nd update, May 13 at 8:58 a.m.) — Police arrested Quezon City Rep. Bingbong Crisologo on Sunday, the eve of election day, for allegedly attempting to disrupt authorities in a vote-buying incident.
Crisologo and his son, lawyer Edrix Crisologo, are seen handcuffed in a photo released on the mayoral candidate's Facebook page.
Metro Manila police chief Guillermo Eleazar told Philstar.com in a text message that Crisologo was "arrested for obstruction of justice and will be detained."
Joselito Esquivel, director of Quezon City Police District, said cops were conducting an operation at Barangay Toro and arrested a few people deemed to be involved in vote buying.
"The report was that Crisologo arrived [at the scene] and started to curse at and threatened charges against the police," Esquivel said at a late night press conference, as reported by GMA News.
In a video posted by a former congressman, however, Crisologo said police entered a house at Barangay Toro in the city without a warrant.
"What happened was training for poll watchers was ongoing. We were handing out paraphernalia for the watchers. The police entered the house without a search warrant. So, there was confusion," he said in Filipino in the video posted on the Facebook page of former lawmaker Michael Defensor, now a first nominee of Anakalusugan party-list.
Crisologo added that the police were out of uniform and some were in slippers.
In a separate post on his campaign Facebook page, Crisologo said he was taken to Camp Karingal, the headquarters of the Quezon City Police District, with his son.
"Hindi po kami binasahan ng aming (We were not read our) Miranda rights nor we were informed of why we were arrested," he said.
He added that he and Edwin Rodriguez of the PDP-Laban Quezon City Council had gone to "a place where vote-buying was happening" and were picked up and brought to Camp Karingal.
Crisologo's candidacy, however, will not immediatey be affected by the arrest.
James Jimenez, spokesperson of the Commission on Elections, said Monday that "obstruction of justice" is not an election-related offense and Crisologo's case will still undergo investigation.
"Let's see where this will go," Jimenez said in a television interview.
Disclosure: Vice Mayor Joy Belmonte, who is running for mayor of Quezon City, is a shareholder of Philstar Global Corp., which operates news site Philstar.com. This article was produced following editorial standards.
- Latest
- Trending
