Police Senior Superintendent Constantino Paul Barot, Jr., provincial director of the Bohol Philippine National Police, denied yesterday having ordered the pull out of six policemen assigned as security detail of Carmen Mayor Conchita Toribio de los Reyes. “There’s no such pullout order”, the provincial director texted matter-of-factly, when his reaction was sought by The Post. The police official was asked to react regarding allegations from City Mayor Dan Neri Lim that the lady mayor was stripped of her security escorts. But notwithstanding the expected denial, Mayor Lim left no doubt about his suspicions that Gov. Edgar Chatto is behind the pullout of the six policemen securing the Carmen mayor. “He will deny it but he will be fooling only those who share his line of thinking,” the mayor said yesterday.

Lim said there is no doubt that the pullout of the six policemen, which came after a similar pullout of military security to the mayor, is related to the controversy over the governor’s Prosperity Team program. Toribio has publicly clashed with Chatto over the program which has been accused of being the governor’s vehicle for his reelection bid. The mayor demanded the pullout of the teams operating in four Carmen barangays after receiving complaints from her people in the field that the people working for the program were inciting the residents against them. Chatto defended the program and paraded top military and police officials during his weekly radio program the other week.

BACK AND FORTH

As Chatto and Mayor Che were caught in a back and forth of charges and counter charges regarding the Pro Team controversy, the feisty mayor was at it again when she went on air last week about improprieties committed by team members. Making no pretense of her displeasure, Mayor Che said she had it from a good authority that two team members were impregnated by army men while the pro-poor program was implemented in Carmen. Reacting to the mayor’s accusation, a Capitol press release sent to the Post yesterday dismissed the same as a cheap political gimmick. The same press statement that the offended workers asserted that not one of them is pregnant during an assessment called by SEEM Cluster head and Provincial Agriculturist Liza Quirog, who handles the Countryside Development Program: Purok Power Movement (CDP-PPM).

The meeting was also attended by military men who could only admire the commitment and sacrifices of the ProTeams who have to climb the mountains under a scorching sun. The female ProTeam members, many of whom are married of ages 25-61, felt injured and insulted by the irresponsible statement that tends to portray them as women of ill-repute. What pains further, according to them, is that the allegation came from a lady mayor---and a family woman at that---who should not cause families to break. They may understand if such intrigue is merely picked up in a night bar and spread by a drugged woman of the dark. They said De los Reyes cannot even claim to be merely sensitive to their gender because she resorted to lie apparently for political mileage at the expense of their honor. Gov. Edgar Chatto would have the ProTeam workers instead become more dedicated and focused because no trash talk can equate with good governance.

The ProTeam members could recall of only one married co-worker who was already pregnant while they were yet training. She had in fact backed out because of her condition even long before the ProTeams were dispatched to the fields. There are younger female workers but who compose the secretariat and stay in the office. A third group would only periodically go to the fields to monitor and evaluate the ProTeam accomplished areas. The buntis gimmick is just part of the litany of issues hyped by the political detractors against the good deeds of the incumbent administration of the province.

TORIBIO UNIMPRESSED

While Capitol was at its wits end in depending the “pregnant episode”, Toribio was unimpressed and pressed on with her attack until the pullouts started. Lim said the pullout is not the first time, recalling the pullout of Superintendents Anthony Obenza and Rodolfo Llorca, former PNP provincial directors, whose loyalties to Chatto were suspect. The mayor pointed out that Chatto is the chairman of the regional peace and order council aside from being the chief executive of the province. “If he can cause the relief of provincial directors, there is no reason why he cannot pull out six policemen,” he commented during his radio program “Ang Mayor Sa Dakbayan”. Lim said the pullout comes at a time when Toribio stepped up her peace and order campaign in Carmen. Toribio has pointed out that before her assumption, the peace and order situation was rated between 8 to 10 on a scale of 10 but which has since dropped to zero and 1.

The mayor said that the pullout is ill-conceived “because if anything happened to Mayor Che, the logical suspect would be Gov. Chatto”. Lim also insisted this is vintage Chatto. “I have been at the receiving end of his maneuvers during the time when Gov. Chatto was still a powerful congressman identified with then Pres. GMA,” he added. The mayor said he was the object of Chatto’s complaints to the Department of Interior and Local Government, Ombudsman, Department of Environment and Natural Resources, Department of Public Works and Highways, Commission on Audit, Philippine National Police and even the Development Bank of the Philippines. “In all the instances that constitute harassment against me, he did not know anything about it,” the mayor added, referring to the governor. Lim said no one will miss the unseen hand which only victimizes Chatto’s opponents.

GRASSROOT LEVEL

The idea of a Prosperity Team is part of the CDP-PPM approach of the provincial government for a fast and direct link with the people to sustain peace and development down the grassroot level. The fielding of the ProTeams is an exponent of countryside progress and discrediting their mission could only prove that the purok power movement is at work and succeeding. De los Reyes had the ProTeams pulled out of Carmen because her town is already “progressive.” Carmenanons complained however of the “missing” road from barangay Bicao to El Salvador which condition has long been neglected. It is now covered by shrubs and impassable.

NPA PLENUM LADY DEFENDS PROTEAM

Former Red Cross Administrator Francisca Baluyot said in an unsolicited statement that capitol under Chatto is reaching out to the people in empowering the purok thru the prosperity workers. A faithful government that is felt by the most ordinary of constituents was one of the crying concerns precisely tackled in the plenum of the New People’s Army (NPA) in Bohol almost 30 years ago, according to Baluyot. Now the top officer of the humanitarian Philippine Gift of Life, Baluyot was the only non-rebel Boholana invited to that plenum, which was also attended by NPA commanders based in other provinces.

DEMOLITION

On Friday’s live broadcast of the Kita ug Ang Gobernador, Chatto exposed a demolition plot using the local, regional and national media against him and allied leaders. The governor is however unfazed by this because he has been used to the attacks by camps who envy his achievements in government service and public career. The shifting of alliance is natural to him since there are now in his fold people who were in the opposite quarters in the past. Chatto said what is sure and constant is that he is never heard destroying the image of his fellow leaders. He could only answer or clarify issues or put things to their proper perspective whenever he would necessarily talk, according to the governor. Chatto’s supporters said the governor could not prevent his political detractors from assailing his kind of leadership and governance that have made Bohol a decorated province in the country today. “But they will have their own time to answer to the people,” Gov. Chatto was quoted as saying tellingly. (with reports from jlvEDCom and Ven rebo Arigo)