SAN CARLOS CITY–The campaign and the elections are over but the black propaganda lingers.

A defeated vice mayoralty candidate here has deplored the circulation of duplicated copies of  a propaganda material that was spread before the elections purportedly quoting him as saying that the ones who masterminded the slaying of Mayor Julian Resuello were Governor  Victor Agbayani and brothers Douglas and Gallant Soriano.

Former San Carlos City Vice Mayor Harry Cagampan said at a news conference the propaganda material from which the reproduced copies was lifted from was a bogus tabloid newspaper known by its masthead as “Palaban”, supposedly published in Caloocan City but did not indicate its exact address.

“The publication was dated April 30 to May 7, so this was really intended for purposes of the last election,” Cagampan told newsmen.

He said they got hold of a copy of the tabloid newspaper on May 8 and he and his teammate, former Mayor Douglas Soriano and his brother Gallant, a candidate for congressman in the third district, just laughed the matter off and considered it   as mere black   propaganda material.

But after the election, following the defeat of Cagampan and the Soriano brothers, the black propaganda paper was again reproduced and circulated, putting the three in a bad light and further endangered Cagampan’s life and his family as well.

“I do not know the intention of people behind the circulation of this material.

Perhaps, they wanted to destroy the good relationship that we had before the election among us partymates or to simply poison the minds of the San Carlos City electorate,” Cagampan told newsmen.

Cagampan set the record straight that he never gave an interview to any newsman before the election on the slaying of Mayor Resuello and his civilian bodyguard Eulogio Martinez. He said the names of persons found in the staff box of the newspapers appeared to be all fictitious.

The banner story of the black propaganda newspaper was titled “Agbayani at Soriano utak sa pagpatay kay Resuello”. The sub-head was “P2-m ang ibinayad, ayon kay Cagampan. Suspek umamin na”.

Cagampan said the names of the two writers who supposedly wrote the story, “Bening E. Batuigas” and “Butch Quesada”, were found to be with the “PilipinoStar”, a subsidiary of the national broadsheet “Philippine Star”.

The Philippine Star has issued a disclaimer that the two are involved in the black propaganda and are not part of the said tabloid.

For fear of his life and his family, Cagampan has asked he Philippine National Police through Police Provincial Director Isagani Nerez to investigate the matter which he now considers as “something quite serious”.—LM.

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