Punchline
Investigating Mayor Belen
By Ermin Garcia Jr.
THE legal tussle and psy-war over the controversial sale of the MC Adore properties rages on. But this time, it took a different and surprisingly, a comical route.
The camp of the Amb ALC Holding and Management, pretending to be waving the flag of press freedom, succeeded in luring and baiting the Department of Justice to have Dagupan Mayor Belen T. Fernandez, Dagupan chief of Police P/Superintendent Christopher Abrahano, former OIC-provincial director P/Senior Superintendent Marlou Chan and former Criminal Investigation and Detention Group-Pangasinan chief P/Superintendent Freddie Laoyan investigated as suspected masterminds behind the attempt on the life of broadcaster Orly Navarro.
While the talking heads of Amb ALC Holding, namely, its lawyer Ferdinand Topacio, Weekly Graphic publisher Juan Dayang and DWIZ DJ Allan Sison, lamely deny that their campaign to link Mayor Fernandez and police officers Abrahano, Chan and Laoyan, to the ambush is connected to their company’s stake in the MC Adore purchase, the telltale signs are there to see, and too obvious to ignore. Besides, there are no credible media groups in Pangasinan that dare echo their claims publicly. Only press releases issued by Topacio et al to clueless national media outfits, columnists and broadcast commentators are making the incredible claim of a conspiracy led by the mayor to kill Mr. Navarro. What hogwash!
The harder they try to make their case, concocting lies on every turn, the more obvious they become about their true motive – to effect the complete the takeover of the MC Adore properties without further delay. By linking the mayor, they apparently believe they can establish that she has a devious mind and a devilish agenda for her continuing opposition to the scandalous sale of MC Adore as arranged by former Mayor Benjie Lim. Or pressure her to capitulate and stop opposing the takeover.
In the case of the three police officers, one can easily surmise that they are being harassed merely for their perceived role in the 2013 elections that led to the defeat of former Mayor Benjie Lim. Note that Amb ALC Holdings legal problems over the purchase started with Mr. Lim’s unexpected loss in the elections and subsequent disappearance from public eye. Mr. Topacio obviously thought the three had to be included in the investigation to buttress make their claim that the plot to kill Mr. Navarro could only be hatched by Mayor Belen with the help of conniving police officers like them. Ho-hum. I am extremely disappointed that Mr. Topacio, a self-styled celebrity lawyer, can’t be more creative than that.
Fortunately for the city (and Mayor Belen), the National Bureau of Investigation is not an agency that can be swayed or dictated upon to recommend the filing of charges without prima facie evidence. In the first place, the arrested suspect is already adamant he didn’t shoot Mr. Navarro despite sworn statements of eyewitnesses, so how can he attest to being a part of a conspiracy? Figure that out!
Sadly for the Amb ALC Holdings, the expected summary dismissal by NBI of its allegations will again backfire on it, leaving it further discredited and disgraced, failing in its attempts to continuously harass and intimidate Dagupeños.
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I have decided to put out a PUNCHLINE special report, citing specific documents, to protect the truth and to point out how truth is being twisted and distorted for corporate greed. Briefly, the most blatant lies peddled by the group led by Mr. Topacio are:
- Remember that old adage “A picture is worth a thousand words”?
Well, Mr. Topacio et al. outdid themselves thoroughly with a picture they peddled to national media showing himself, Mr. Sison and Mr. Navarro looking at the “gunshot scar.” The caption aptly told their story of lies: “At a media briefing in Manila on Thursday, September 11, Provincial Press Clubs of the Philippines president Allan Sison (left) and lawyer Ferdinand Topacio (right) examines the gunshot scar of Dagupan City broadcaster Orly Navarro, who was shot by unidentified assailant on August 26. Navarro is asking the DOJ to conduct a thorough investigation on the matter.” Ha-ha! They looked like the latest version of the Three Stooges!
1st Lie: Mr. Navarro was shot from behind and was hit on his left shoulder blade. That’s where the “gunshot scar” is, not below Mr. Navarro’s chest as DOJ Sec. Leila de Lima was made to believe. Mr. Navarro himself proved this in the series of pictures he posted, (with his back turned, showing the blood stain on his hospital robe’s shoulder) on his Facebook account. In legal parlance, I believe Mr. Topacio committed perjury, big time.
2nd lie: Mr. Sison is not the president of the Federation of Provincial Press
Clubs of the Philippines. He is not even qualified to be elected as president
since he is not the current president of the Pangasinan Press Club. (Mr. Sison is a plain DJ of DWIZ-Dagupan, formerly Mr. Navarro’s superior, then recently demoted as Nr. Navarro’s subordinate in DWIZ-Dagupan). To foist Mr. Sison as a guardian of press freedom indicates a sign of desperation on the part of Amb ALC Holdings.
3rd Lie: Contrary to Mr. Topacio’s claim, the suspected assailant had been identified and is already charged in court by the city prosecutor. His name is Rolando Lim, yes, Mr. Navarro’s neighbor. He was identified by two eyewitnesses and was tagged by Mr. Navarro himself as his prime suspect in his signed affidavit before the police. (Check out my Special Report’s documents).
2). At the presscon in Manila, Mr. Topacio reportedly claimed that Mr. Navarro signed an affidavit attesting that right after the shooting, he (Navarro) immediately asked his daughter to put on record in his cellphone the names of the people “who has the intention to commit the crime.”
Unless Mr. Topacio operates on a selective memory, only a desperate operator can concoct such a scenario to deliberately obstruct justice. Mr. Topacio forgot that Mr. Navarro never mentioned nor recalled during the press conference in Dagupan, a week after the incident, that he instructed his daughter as claimed. Worse, what was kept away from the pubic (and the DOJ) was the fact that Mr. Navarro signed his statement to the police affirming that the arrested suspect, his neighbor, was his only suspect. (Again, the SR document). It was only Mr. Topacio who put words in Mr. Navarro’s mouth that he suspects Mayor Belen to be behind the attempt on his life. In fairness to Mr. Navarro, he never claimed in Dagupan even during the press conference, that he suspected Mayor Belen Fernandez or the chief of police as the mastermind. It has always been Mr. Topacio who has been doing all the talking at the expense of Mr. Navarro who is being made to look like a heel to his media colleagues.
3). Here’s the real comic part in the cabal’s circus of lies. Mr. Topacio et al. made Mr. Navarro name three senior police officers whom they insinuate are capable of hiring a gunman to kill Mr. Navarro. The problem with their assertion is that the facts of the incident are not consistent with their fertile imagination. Messrs. Abrahano, Chan and Laoayan have been trained and schooled to know how and what can effectively eliminate enemies of the state, and shooting a target with a .22 caliber handgun is certainly not the way to do it. Only an amateur gun owner who’s had little or no training in gun handling would think that. As our history of hitmen riding in tandem show, hired gunmen only use either a .45 or a .38 cal. handgun, not a .22! And assuming the three did the hiring of the hitman, they surely did not live up to their image as professionals – Mr. Navarro’s “hitman” was a sloppy shooter who could not aim well. The scenario being painted by Mr. Topacio before the public (and DOJ) only succeeded in proving one of two things: The police officers are dumb or he and Mr. Navarro are dumb! Choose your wild!
Through all these, I can only commiserate with Mr. Navarro for not only being forced to lie and swallow his pride but to compromise his integrity as a broadcast journalist for the sake of Amb ALC Holdings’ profit agenda in the MC Adore sale. Sayang.
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But hey, the NBI should proceed, by all means, carry out the order of DOJ Sec. De Lima and investigate Mayor Belen and the 3 police officers.
If it doesn’t find a prima facie evidence against them, at least it can learn how the likes of Mr. Topacio et al. operate to protect the interests of Amb ALC Holdings at all costs, particularly at the expense of the truth and taxpayers’ money. It can find out what we, The PUNCH, found out when we were accused of libel by Mr. Topacio et al. Need we say, the case was dismissed by judicial determination alone, and didn’t even make it to trial?
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