POLICE 'WON'T TAKE SIDES' IN FEUD BETWEEN MAYORS OF CEBU CITY, STA. FE
Whatever is going on between Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Sta. Fe Mayor Jose Esgana, the police don’t want anything to do with it. Osmeña allegedly threatened Esgana when the two met inside a hotel last Saturday. Police Regional Office 7 Director Noli Taliño said they will not investigate the matter. Taliño said he was not around when Esgana had the alleged incident recorded on the blotter last Monday. Esgana had brought along a witness identified as Bobby Nuñez. The police official stressed that they are not taking sides on the issue. “The police are neutral. Anyone who wants to have an incident in the blotter will be accommodated,” he said.
Police will not investigate the alleged encounter between Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña and Sta. Fe Mayor Jose Esgana over the weekend.
Esgana, in a press conference, said he decided to increase his security personnel for his safety, while Osmeña described the town mayor as a bully.
Police Regional Office (PRO) 7 Director Noli Taliño said that the police will not investigate the matter, saying that the blotter report was only for “record purposes.”
“There’s no request for investigation. His only intention is for the alleged incident to be in the police blotter, and he can use it for future purposes,” Taliño said, adding that the police are not taking side on the issue.
“We’re not supporting the other side. If the other party wants to have the incident on the blotter too, then we can do that, and vice versa,” he said.
“The police is neutral. Anyone who wants to have an incident in the blotter will be accommodated,” he added.
The Regional Investigation and Detective Management Branch received the report when Esgana went to the regional office, with Bobby Nuñez as his witness, at 3:40 p.m. on Monday.
In a press conference, Esgana said that he hired more security personnel after he was allegedly threatened by Osmeña.
The mayor from Bantayan Is- land said that he was still weighing whether or not to pursue a complaint against Osmeña and businessman Alex Tan.
Esgana also wanted Tan’s shipping firm, which is serving the Cebu-Bantayan route, to be investigated by the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR).
“Wa ko damha nga mohimo og statement ang usa ka city mayor to me as an ordinary mayor sa lungsod. Niingon man, ‘Pagbantay-bantay ha, gusto ka’g away, pagbantay-bantay,” said Esgana.
Shake hands
Esgana said that he just tried to shake hands with Osmeña when he saw the latter in a hotel in Cebu City past 9 a.m. last Saturday. Osmeña, however, refused after Tan informed the city mayor that Esgana is the mayor of Santa Fe.
Esgana said he had the incident recorded at the PRO 7 upon the advice of his family and his legal counsel.
He said that a reconciliation with Osmeña is not remote, but that the city mayor and Tan, whom Esgana has been at odds with, were close friends.
Tan earlier said that Esgana gained the ire of Osmeña because the town mayor demolished the barbed wire fence of the beach resort of Osmeña’s sister Minnie in Sta. Fe.
Esgana said that he did not order the demolition. He said the Office of the Building Officials personnel just did their job based on the town’s ordinance that prohibits the construction of barbed wire and other fences on the shore.
At the Cebu City Hall, Osmeña described Esgana as a bully.
Osmeña said it was Esgana who started the incident, and he clarified that he did not raise his voice while they were at the lobby of the hotel. He said that he was also unarmed and with no bodyguards in tow.
“I met him for the first and said, ‘Ikaw diay na? Nangita ka’g away?’ So that’s my threat to him? I’m just asking him a question,” Osmeña told reporters.
“I can say boo and you can feel threatened by it. It’s not a crime. He’s not used to it so he better get used to it. The fact that he is threatened, he has to go beyond that. What crime did I commit? It’s very basic when you file a case, you cite a crime. I can show my face there and you feel threatened, is that a crime?” Osmeña said.