The former mayor of Anda town, represented by a top law firm in Tagbilaran City, has disproved reports linking him as owner of Anda cockpit arena, which was subjected to a recent closure order allegedly issued by the local government. “We wish to correct the false accusations directed against our client Paulino mper (former mayor of Anda),” said the opening paragraph of lawyer Antonio D. Arabejo's letter addressed to Sunday Post's publisher, Boy “BG” Guingguing. Arabejo and Mar Law Firm has been tapped by P. Amper to air his reaction to the Post's news article published two weeks ago, titled “For non-payment of tax: Cockpit arena closed.” Arabejo said that based on his correspondence with Anda municipal treasurer Pedro Castrodes, non-payment of tax was not among the issue(s) raised but it was “centered on our alleged lack of franchise.”

In the letter to the Post, P. Amper's legal counsel has attached a certification issued by Castrodes that “we have been paying taxes since the year 1996 until the year 2013.” Lawyer Arabejo also clarified that “the municipal treasurer did not issue the closure order.” “As a matter of fact, he had it recorded in the police blotter of the Anda PNP that he did not give instructions to effect the closure,” Arabejo pointed out. “While it is true that treasurer Castrodes sent us a cease and desist letter upon instruction of the Mayor, we have cordially and timely filed our opposition thereto citing therein our justifications.” The lawyer continued: “He was professional enough to afford us due process but inexplicably, Mayor Dodong Amper, presumably upon the prodding of his consultant Reinerio Makinano, eagerly made an override on his directive to the Treasurer and personally made the instruction to implement the closure of the cockpit.” P. Amper's counsel has stressed that they have “tendered payments but the treasurer's office did not receive them upon order from ‘upstairs.'''

On the other hand, counsel Arabejo also clarified the statement made on Facebook by Anda councilor Ferdinand Visaya Berongoy, who had alleged that the cockpit arena had been operating without mayor's permit and franchise, adding that management, allegedly, had not been paying taxes to the province and the municipality. “Saying that we have no franchise to operate a cockpit is a blatant lie,” Arabejo said. “To contradict and show that the claim of lawyer Berongoy is false, we attach hereto a certification issued by the Secretary of the SB of Anda, Bohol, (where incidentally he is a member of, being an incumbent kagawad) expressly and explicitly stating that we have been granted a 25 years franchise to operate a cockpit arena at Bacong, Anda, Bohol, by the SB of Anda, Bohol,” the lawyer narrated. “We wish to add that the Franchise was granted in the year 1998…”

Arabejo also slammed the statement of Don Dela Peña who was quoted by the Post in saying that “this kind of gambling has an adverse effect upon children who, instead of obtaining a good education, plummet to become an addict gambler, drug addict and become lazy to go to school; consequently, they become part of the community's problem instead of a solution.” In reaction, Arabejo considered such opinion as “biased and boastful opinion of an ally, suffice it to say that we still have to know of any crime or untoward incident, which could be attributed to the operation of the Anda Cockpit Arena, since its inception up to the present.” The lawyer said that by writing to the Post and expressing their side, the paper's readers, “more particularly the Andahanons, (would) know the real story.” The Post, believing the issue is of public interest, had run the questioned news article on its June 29, 2014 edition after it had received confirmation from its sources that the cockpit arena had indeed been closed, as shown by a closure order being publicly printed on a wooden board, which is nailed at the gate of the cockpit. Before publishing the story on June 29, 2014, the Post had been trying to seek P. Amper's comments but failed.