Lazatin supporters file raps vs Pamintuan personnel

Ten individuals, who are supporters of Representative Carmelo Lazatin, have filed illegal arrest and physical injuries against personnel of Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan.

Lazatin's supporters were arrested and allegedly harassed and threatened by Pamintuan's allies and men led by Jesse Eres, head of the Angeles City Entertainment Promotion Office (Acepo).

Charged were Eres, other Acepo officers, and officials from the Angeles City Police Station 4 located in Barangay Balibago.

The 10 individuals were arrested by City Traffic Aides on February 3 in Barangay Balibago here while distributing flyers, containing joint affidavit hitting the mayor in connection with the job orders issue at the City Government.

The 10 were taken to the Acepo, where they were reportedly harassed by Acepo personnel and even threatened by Eres.

According to reports, at least two of the apprehended individuals were "strangled" by Acepo personnel.

Eres reportedly told the apprehended individuals, "Papate da ka, ugse da ka Abacan, bayaran dakang P200,000 (I will have you killed, I'll throw you off Abacan (bridge), I'll pay P200,000 for you).”

The apprehended individuals were then transferred to Station 4 where all 10 of them, two of whom are minors, were detained for almost seven hours.

They were identified as Roger Sumala, Jeffrey Sumala, Yoshiko Canque, Princess Gopez, Kristina Arceo, John Michael Delusa, Nicole Ramos, Paolo Sumala, and two minors.

The flyers being distributed by the apprehended individuals contain the joint statement issued by village councilmen William David (Barangay Lourdes Northwest), Roy Ogurida (Barangay Cutcut), Renato Coronel (Barangay Salapungan), Nenita Ferrer (Barangay Margot), and Oliver Chaneco (Barangay Santo Domingo) assailing the Pamintuan administration for the alleged inclusion of the names of the village officials' relatives in the list of the job order employees without their knowledge.

Eres denied threatening to kill one of the arrested persons. He said it is not in his personality to have someone killed.

by Reynaldo Navales

Lazatin questions real property tax

IC Calaguas, chief of staff of Rep. Carmelo “Tarzan” Lazatin (1st district, Pampanga), challenged Thursday Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan to release real property taxes (RPTs) due to some barangays for the months of September and October.

She noted that for the month of August, the total share for RPTs collected by the City Government amounted to P443,831.42, but Barangay Balibago chairman Tony Mamac, has not received its P42,427.34 share of the RPT for August.

The same case is true, Calaguas said, with Barangay Cutcut led by chairman Cecille Nepomuceno, whose RPT share for August amounting to P28,421.19 remains unreleased.

“If the current city administration is really practicing sound fiscal management as they claim, why can’t they release the barangay RPT on time? The local Government Code states that barangays are entitled to 30 percent of the RPT collected by the city, 50 percent of which will go to the barangay where the property is located and 50 percent to be distributed equally among other barangays,” stressed Calaguas.

‘Stable’

“If the city is stable, then show documents,” Calaguas said.

She added, “We have documents to prove everything even as they deny that the city government is bankrupt and has a negative cash flow. Even this list of thousands of JOs [job orders] which is costing city hall some P26 million is documented by our camp. Records we gathered from the Treasurer’s Office show that the city has a negative cash flow of P11,945,575. How can they deny that? Let’s prove everything with documents, including the unreleased RPT of some barangays,” Calaguas told Sun.Star Pampanga yesterday.

She also cited Section 271(d) of the Local Government Code which states that “the share of each barangay shall be released, without the need of any further action, directly to the barangay treasurer on a quarterly basis within 5 days after the end of each quarter and shall not be subject to any lien or holdback for whatever purpose.”

“Pero matagal na since August. Two weeks have passed since the end of the third quarter. What’s holding them back from releasing the RPTs?” she said, as she showed volumes of documents to back up the Lazatin camp’s claim: “Let’s prove everything with documents.”