Another denial

I’ll just have to take his word with a grain of salt. It’s hard to tell fact from fiction nowadays, especially when so much has happened to officials and candidates in the southern town of San Fernando since the beginning of the year.

But when news of a second “kill list” came out earlier this week, Police Regional Office 7 Director Debold Sinas immediately denied that it had anything to do with the illegal drug trade. This time, he said, politics might be the culprit.

But isn’t that what Ricardo Reluya Jr., the town’s Association of Barangay Councils president and Panadtaran barangay captain, had been saying all along before he was gunned down along with two others in Talisay City last January?

Ricardo revealed the existence of the first “kill list” following the deaths of their two allies, Magsico Barangay Captain Johnny Arriesgado and Municipal Councilor Reneboy Dacalos. The two were gunned down by “unidentified” men.

The list contained the names of the Reluya couple—Ricardo’s wife is the town mayor, Lakambini “Neneth” Reluya—Arriesgado, Dacalos and Municipal Councilors Alfonso Donaire IV and Edwin Villaver.

As we all know, the mayor survived the ambush that killed her husband. Arriesgado and Dacalos are gone. So, too, is Donaire. He fled Cebu and sought refuge in his parents’ house in Zamboanga del Sur, but the killer still found him there. As for Villaver, well, he has been absent from the council in the last two months.

Back then, Ricardo accused his wife’s opponent in the mayoral race, businessman Ruben Feliciano, of posting the kill list on social media.

Of course, Feliciano denied any wrongdoing, although he did admit warning them to back out of the elections or they would die. He also continued to insist that they were involved in the illegal drug trade having allegedly received some kind of help from self-confessed drug lord Franz Sabalones, brother of the mayor’s ally, Vice Mayor Fralz Sabalones.

The native of Zamboanga del Sur had never been known to shy away from publicity when the persons on the first kill list started dropping dead like flies. His pronouncements on the matter even made news headlines.

When his name once again came up after the Reluya ambush, Feliciano said: “Why link my name? I’m a law-abiding citizen, a God-fearing man but I hate drugs. I will kill them all.” Go figure.

Anyway, I was looking forward to another bombastic rhetoric from Feliciano when it was revealed that there was a second kill list. But there was nothing.

Instead, he sent a text message to SunStar Cebu, saying he and his group had no hand in the list. “I DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT THAT.”

Apparently, Feliciano has learned to change tack.