Perez belies report on Muslim-ban policy

By August 14, 2016Headlines, News

URDANETA CITY—“I am not that stupid to do that. That’s unconstitutional.”

This was the angry reaction of Mayor Amadeo Gregorio Perez IV to a newspaper report that he announced his “bold order” banning Muslims’ in the city during their Monday flag raising ceremony.

The report said the mayor won’t even allow Muslims to rent a house or stay in hotels or inns as his strategy to boost the city’s campaign against illegal drugs.

“I’m not ejecting Muslims here. That’s not true,” Perez told newsmen Wednesday.

City Engr. Robert Abocado who was present during the Monday flag raising ceremony attested he did not hear Mayor Bobom say what was alleged in the article.

“He never said anything close to what was published,” he said. He added that what the mayor mentioned were allegations hurled against him about his alleged his drug link.

“Everybody is welcome in Urdaneta, regardless of your religion, status in life, race for as long as you are doing legitimate business,” he added.

Perez said he had a talk with Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) Gov. Mujiv Hataman Tuesday night after the “false” report came out in a national daily.

He said he clarified the issue with Hataman who had expressed his resentment over the news report claiming that he ordered Urdaneta to be cleared of Muslim settlers.

Officials from the Commission on Higher Education and the Muslims Affairs office also came to see the mayor in his office Tuesday about the news report.

The ‘Ban-Muslims’ report was published at a time when occupants of more than 70 houses a Muslim community located inside Doña Trining Subdivision in Barangay Camantiles were voluntarily dismantling their houses.

The dismantling was reportedly started by residents who felt threatened by the discovery of a shabu laboratory inside the village.

Perez said the occupants voluntarily did the dismantling themselves of their houses on the land owned by his father, Manila Economic and Cultural Office Chairman Amadeo Perez Jr, since Friday.

The elder Perez, who was also mayor here and former 5th District Representative, allowed the Muslims to stay there for the past 20 years.  It started with three Muslim families doing legitimate business there and soon multiplied in number.

The mayor said he only came to know about the demolition when a Muslim elder went to him to borrow heavy equipment for the demolition.

He also agreed to extend financial assistance to those relocating to other areas.

He confirmed that some Muslim residents decided to leave out of fear for their lives who are afraid of their lives due to the government’s intensified campaign against illegal drugs.

The police have already arrested several drug suspects in Barangay Camantiles.

Perez lamented that his political detractors are linking him to the illegal drug trade as protector.

“I have a clean conscience. It’s politics that’s behind this,” he said and confirmed he had talked to Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency head Isidro Lapeña in presence of P/Supt. Marceliano Desamito Jr, the newly assigned acting police chief,  about the drugs situation in the city.

Lapeña is from Barangay San Vicente this city.

Meanwhile, Desamito said in a separate interview that the Muslims in Doña Trining Subdivision had a “peaceful exit” even as he confirmed of the active illegal drug trade in the city. (Tita Roces)

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