The word is out that the supposed plot to kill Cong. Erico Aumentado of the second district was a dud, according to findings of the National Bureau of Investigation. The same was true to reports regarding the kidnap plan of a judge saying it was “stunningly fake and purely fabricated”. According to a press release from the Capitol EdCom, it said “somebody” probably “coached” the supposed sources of information to the alleged slay and kidnap targets, only that they “just failed to exactly deliver the spoon-fed details” to make their stories credible. Investigators found glaring inconsistencies in the statements of the whistleblowers, who could not even support their claims or further identify their primary sources.

Two of the informants, brothers Kag. Gerson ‘Toto’ Dulang of Talibon and Vice Mayor Cristiflor Dulang of Mutia, Zamboanga del Norte, were “lying,” according to the NBI final report. The report was submitted by Special Investigator III Teodoro Saavedra of NBI-Bohol and approved by NBI Regioal Director Edward Villarta, a lawyer. In a press release late last June, Aumentado then claimed that a “reliable informant” called and “confirmed” to him the assassination plan based on the tip from the informant’s brother in Zamboanga. The same claimed that the murder plan was already sealed with a notorious group from Zamboanga del Norte hired by a “cabal out to eliminate him from the 2013 election.” However, nowhere in the NBI report that the informant-witnesses ever mentioned of politics as a likely motive behind the assassination move that otherwise turned out to be a hoax.

The target of the alleged kidnapping plot is retired Judge Avelino Puracan, also of Talibon, who is said to be a close friend of the congressman. In his affidavit to the NBI, Puracan was surprised to learn of his being included in the alleged threat. He was initially led to suspect that it might have been linked to his case against his gas station’s robbers or his alliance with the congressman. But he added that the latter is remote because he still believes in the goodness of the politicians in Bohol, the NBI report said. The special investigator of the NBI revealed in his final report to the NBI that it was a certain Tubo who supposedly heard first the threat from “drunk” strangers “talking aloud” that “birahan si Puracan ug congressman (Puracan and congressman are to be harmed).” It allegedly occurred inside a videoke joint in Bagacay, Talibon, sometime in the evening of mid-June, during which Tubo himself was already drunk.

Investigations also revealed that Tubo passed this information to Dulang half a month before the latter’s vice mayor- brother in Zamboanga was to learn, for the first time, of the slay plot on Aumentado from a source there. The NBI noted that while the Aumentado press release here on June 26 already “detailed” the assassination plan as “confirmed” to the solon by Dulang based on the information from his brother in Mindanao, the latter only learned of the plot on July 5. The vice mayor’s source was a certain Junjun,” allegedly of Rizal town also in Zamboanga del Norte, who supposedly texted him of the assassination plan and its details. Meanwhile, Puracan wrote to the NBI for assistance as soon as he heard from Dulang last June that he would be “kidnapped” and, thus, the investigation, while Aumentado resorted to publicity on the supposed threat to his life. The retired judge reported to the NBI that Dulang also told him that his (Dulang’s) vice mayor brother called and informed him of the parallel plot to kill Aumentado.

KAG. DULANG’S VERSION

As narrated to the NBI, Dulang received the information on the plot to kidnap Puracan from a “bystander” near the Barracuda Beach Resort in Bagacay, Talibon on June 19. On June 21, his brother called him from Zamboanga and alarmed him of the plot to assassinate Aumentado by a group of hired guns on a “high contract price already paid.” The NBI located Dulang’s local and first informant, who turned out to be Tubo, at the same resort in Talibon on July 20. Investigators found out that contrary to Dulang’s claim, Tubo is not a mere bystander but a member of the lupong tagapamayapa of barangay Bagacay and the electrician of the resort which turned out to be partly owned by Dulang himself.

TUBO’S VERSION

In his affidavit to the NBI, Tubo claimed he was to pass by a nighttime videoke at barangay Bagacay sometime in mid-June when “a familiar-looking man whom he thought was one of his co-workers at the quarry of Dulang” invited him for drinks. There, he heard from a group of drunk customers that “birahan si Puracan ug congressman.” He did not bother to identify them because they were not familiar to him anyway. Lately, according to the NBI, Tubo claimed that a barangay captain told him that he also overheard the same information.

DULANG BRO’S VERSION

Dulang’s brother, the vice mayor, told investigators at his office in Mutia, Zamboanga del Norte that he learned of the assassination plan only on July 5 from a certain “Junjun” from the same Rizal town. This already contradicted the Talibon councilor’s statement that his brother in Zamboanga informed him of the plot on June 21 or half a month earlier, the NBI noted. Junjun allegedly texted the vice mayor that a Muntinlupa prisoner cum hired killer were assigned to assassinate Aumentado at a bounty of P500,000 and which was already given. The vice mayor could not give the specific whereabouts of his alleged source, much less the latter’s real identity. He could neither remember Junjun’s mobile phone number. Meanwhile, NBI-Dipolog City agent-in-charge and lawyer Froilo Icao already verified the information on instruction from NBI-Manila before Saavedra of NBI-Bohol arrived in Zamboanga. In a case conference before he was to see the vice mayor, Saavedra was tipped off by Icao that the latter’s verification found out the slay plan information to be “not credible to (even) warrant further investigation.”

NBI OBSERVATIONS

In its final report, the NBI enumerated several observations that “tend to show lies and inconsistencies” in the statements of the supposed informants and sources. Among them are the following:

- Vice Mayor Dulang narrated that Junjun addressed him ‘bai’ in his text messages which connotes closeness or familiarity of the two. At one point, he told the NBI that Junjun is a former quarry worker of his councilor brother in Talibon. Yet, he could not remember Junjun’s exact name or exact address in Rizal, Zamboanga del Norte.

- He failed or intentionally failed to save the mobile phone number of Junjun. He also failed to save the important text messages or just even forward them to his brother in Talibon to prove Junjun had contacted him.

- These text messages also allegedly contained informations about the drug prisoner who hired the Zamboanga group to kill Aumentado for influencing his transfer to Muntinlupa. (In the June 26 press release, it was stated that “Accordingly, a drug financier is involved in the (assassination) transaction where the principal brain is a ranking politician in Bohol.” This was not yet known even to Vice Mayor Dulang that time until Junjun texted him for the first time on July 5 about the plot.)

- The vice mayor, at another point in the NBI interview, unknowingly or by mistake said he was not sure if the price of Aumentado’s head was P500,000 and whether it was already paid to the hired guns.

- The Talibon councilor already peddled the slay-kidnap story in the third week of June with his Zamboanga brother as his source himself even if the latter had no idea about it by then.

- The councilor, when interview by the NBI on July 19, only mentioned his brother as the information source and never about Junjun, who is his former quarry worker, as the primary informant.

- The Dulang brothers’ statements “did not jibe.” They “were not telling the truth, or that somebody might have fed/coached them what to say but they just failed to exactly deliver the spoon-fed details.” The informations being passed around are “baseless.”

- On the part of Tubo, his story heard from drunk men while he was himself drunk is hard to consider and be given ample attention due to the mental condition of those involved at that instant.

- Kag. Dulang put a new twist to the tale of the drunk informant when he claimed of the kidnapping plan against Puracan. Tubo only relayed to him that he heard “birahan si Puracan ug congressman.”

The NBI further found out that Tubo is a relative of Puracan and an avid follower of Aumentado while Dulang, the councilor, is a staunch supporter of the congressman and a close friend, too, of the retired judge. The NBI report considered the case closed and terminated as it “deserves no special attention” and is being “only a figment of imagination” of those who tailored and peddled the story. The NBI furnished copies of its final report to all concerned parties as well as the Provincial Peace and Order Council, which held its regular meeting during capitol’s 7 th HEAT Caravan in Guindulman on Friday. ( With reports from Ven rebo Arigo)