Show proof of death plots, Gov asks militant leaders

SHOW proof of liquidation plots.

This dare came from the office of Governor Erico Aumentado in reaction to a threat of a week-long picket posed by militant groups demanding an audience with the governor and top military officials. Office of the Governor Chief of Staff Romeo Teruel, in a letter to Bayan Muna Bohol Coordinator John Ruiz III said with proof of liquidation plot provided, the governor would not only call the military to dialogue. He said the governor would also convene the Local Peace Forum to hear out the concern on alleged liquidation plot. Last week, at a press conference, Ruiz III, Hugpong sa Mag-uumang Bol-anon Vice Chair Felipeneri Bihasa, Karapatan Secretary General Lisa Serenio, Gabriela Chair Martina Visaya, Promotion of Church Peoples Response Msgr. Feliciano Nalzaro Jr. and Bayan Bohol Coordinator Victor Olayvar told local media that they have been subjected to death threats. Citing threats of political activists here, militant groups agree that vilification campaigns that precede leaders deaths in Luzon resemble local experiences. The group named Adolfo Cullano, Eugenio Furog, Olympio Crame, Nestor Aringue and Liezelda Cuñado as Bohol 's share of political martyrs.

Police investigators and military forces have a different story to tell behind the deaths. They refute militant claims with “nothing but personal” tales. Pssupt. Artur Evangelista told Gov. Aumentado in a letter dated July 31 that Cuñado died because of personal grudge while Arinque was reportedly assassinated by peers over abuse and failure to remit extortion money. “You talk of Nestor Arinque, Liezelda Cuñado and Olympio Crame as political martyrs. But you failed to mention how they were killed and for what motives,” Teruel wrote. “Your statements over the media…only led people to believe that you were making up the threats,” he said.

For the governor's alleged “no shows,” members of progressive groups accused him of being elusive and not acting on their concern. But Teruel said he had told an emissary, Trinidad Mayor Osias Flor Jr. on the parameters on the audience with the governor demand. The threatened leaders however have not met the parameters, Teruel implied. Dispelling beliefs that the governor was sitting on the “threats”, he clarified that it is precisely the inability of the group to put up tenable basis on the allegations that held the governor [from meeting them]. Minus the proofs of liquidation that would back the threats, Teruel said Capitol would look at the threats as an extension of the propaganda to link the President to the political killings, something that [your] national leaders would like people to believe. “Until then, the Provincial Leadership would like to request that you keep your cool and spare your people the hassle of having to lose a week's income so they can join your mass action,” he wrote.

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