CEBU, Philippines — Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña believes Presidential Assistant for Visayas Michael Lloyd Dino is behind the “drug protector tag” on him.
Osmeña contended that Dino is “very close” to justice secretary Vitaliano Aguirre who said there’s a certain Reynaldo “Jumbo” Diaz issued an affidavit in November 2016 alleging that Osmeña is a “protector of drug lords” and is allegedly in the drug payola of a drug lord.
“Dino is very close to Aguirre. Even before Aguirre was secretary of justice, he came to Cebu to go to the party of Dino. They’re close. That’s ok. Sport raman ko,” Osmeña said.
The Freeman reached out to Dino for comment but the OPAV chief declined to issue one.
Diaz is the cousin of slain drug personality Jeffrey “Jaguar” Diaz.
Jaguar was killed before Osmeña returned to the mayorship in 2016 but Osmeña gave a P100,000 reward to the policemen who gunned Jaguar down.
Osmeña said there were suspicions that Jaguar was killed to stop him from naming his protectors in government.
“They have concocted this situation to drag me into the picture that I was the one who had Jaguar killed and then now, I’m protecting Jaguar? I said you know, they just try to complete the whole picture,” Osmeña said.
After he and his trusted men in the police neutralized Jaguar and Rowen “Yawa” Secretaria, Osmeña said the National Police Commission stripped off his supervision power over police.
The mayor reiterated his allegation that it was Napolcom-7 Director Homer Mariano Cabaral who worked for the withdrawal of his supervision power.
Osmeña alleged Cabaral was protector of Jaguar since they both lived in the same barangay for over 20 years.
“Jaguar was so notorious. It is so impossible for someone to be Napolcom regional director and not know about Jaguar. It’s impossible. What did he do to operate against Jaguar?” the mayor added.
Cabaral has since denied the allegation.
Aguirre has said Diaz has been under the Department of Justice’s Witness Protection Program while collating for other evidence against Osmeña who reportedly got P7 million from Jaguar.
While denying he received money from Jaguar, the mayor admitted Jaguar offered him money because Jaguar reportedly hated former Michael Rama.
Osmeña said he has a witness who can prove that Rama asked for P20 million even if he allegedly already received P10 million from Jaguar.
Rama said he is eyeing at suing Osmeña for libel but Osmeña is unfazed.
“Let him file so you can all hear the juicy details,” Osmeña said.
Osmeña said he also wants Aguirre to file a case against him soonest so he will know the nature of the evidence the DOJ has against him.
“They are still making it (affidavit),” Osmeña said, alluding that the DOJ is fabricating evidence against him.
The mayor questioned the timing of his “drug protector tag” because the same came out as Aguirre faces issues relating to DOJ’s decision on controversial cases, including the drug cases against Peter Lim and Kerwin Espinosa.
Osmeña said he will pursue the corruption and disbarment cases against Aguirre.
AGUIRRE
Meanwhile, the justice secretary hit back on Vice President Leni Robredo’s remark that personalities with opposing views against the government are suddenly being tagged as “drug protectors.”
Aguirre on Wednesday challenged Robredo: “What political vendetta is she talking about? Is it her position that we should not pursue any criminal prosecution for violation of the comprehensive drugs law because the culprit belongs to the opposition?”
The vice president was reacting to Aguirre’s statement that Osmeña received P7 million from a certain “Jumbo” involved in the illegal drug trade.
Aguirre reiterated that the DOJ has a witness who submitted an affidavit that tagged Osmeña — who was criticized in 2016 for offering "rewards" to police officers who kill drug suspects — as protector of drug lords.
Aguirre said the witness came out last year but he did not disclose the information as his office was still building the case. Once the information is verified, the National Bureau of Investigation will file charges against Osmeña, who has close ties to the vice president and her late husband, according to the justice secretary.
Osmeña has been critical of Aguirre, whom he has accused of interfering in the city's tax case against a mall developer and a bank.
Robredo pointed out that there seems to be a pattern with DOJ’s persons of interests in its continuing probe on war against drugs.
She said: “I am saddened by what’s happening. It seems it’s becoming a pattern in which anyone who opposes any announced policy or anybody who disagrees with decisions is tagged as ‘drug protectors.’”
But Aguirre said that the opposition has used this stand before, with the case of detained Sen. Leila de Lima.
“[Should there be no] case should be filed against Osmeña because he is an anti-Duterte advocate?” the justice chief said.
De Lima, one of the staunchest critics of President Rodrigo Duterte, has been in detention since February 2017 due to three drug cases filed against her by state prosecutors.
She has yet to be arraigned in her cases, as the prosecuting team filed motions to change charges against her, from illegal drug trading to conspiracy to commit drug cases.
De Lima’s legal team has opposed this move by the prosecution. They said that the change of charges should merit another preliminary investigation. — /JMO (FREEMAN)