Dumaguete councilors slam antis on 'death threats' on defiant priest

Dumaguete City councilors have denounced what it believes efforts by detractors to shift the gist of the public debate over the sanitary land fill (SLF) issue to the “self-serving claim” of a priest that he received death threats because of his strong opposition against the establishment of the SLF at Barangay Candau-ay.

An article published in a weekly newspaper entitled “Bishop Nixes Idea ofArmed Priests” drew the attention of Councilor Manny Arbon, who said that “for someone like a priest to be threatened is already below the belt.”

Arbon said: “Intentionally or unintentionally, whoever makes that particular threat assuming that it exists, is now trying to project that those who are for the SLF have lost in the debates and that they resorted to threatening the lives of those who are against the establishment of the proposed SLF in Candau-ay.”

Speaking in behalf of the majority in the City Council, Arbon clarified that, “no one among us has instructed anybody, has directed, indirectly insinuated or commanded anybody to threaten anybody who is against the SLF.”

Arbon, chairman of the City Council’s committee on environment, also said it is “quite unfair to intentionally or unintentionally shift the burden and make it appear that this is a life and death issue” especially to Father Sulpicio “Pepe” Vincoy who allegedly made the statement to a radio reporter.

“It is a life and death issue if we don’t manage our wastes well. We will eventually suffer from it and maybe some of us will die because of diseases brought about by unmanaged public waste system,” Arbon retorted.

The alleged death threats on Vincoy was in relation to killings involving priests, as a result some of them have decided to procure hand guns for their protection. But Bishop Julito Cortes was quoted in that article as saying he does not subscribe to the physical arming of his priests to defend themselves from perceived attackers, relying instead of the divine providence.

“It is uncharacteristic of us to threaten anyone with death or harm. We can stand on our ground and defend our position. We have been threatened with law suits and heard Fr. Vincoy that he will pursue legal action if the proposed SLF pushed through, and we gladly welcome that, and so it is pointless for anyone of us who favored the project to threaten anybody,” Arbon argued.

“For all we know the anti-SLF are the ones feeding this to create a false presumption on the mind of the real, well-meaning opposition that they are being threatened by people who are pro-SLF,”Arbon added.

Councilor Estanislao Alviola, agreeing to the sentiments of his colleagues, said, “it is unfair to connect the threats of Fr. Vincoy to the SLF.” He called on the priest to go deeper, so as not to create a false scenario and blame it on the administration.

Councilor Tentio Perdices of the minority bloc however said he was disheartened on how some councilors reacted to the news article. “To my dismay, too many assumptions were made; assumptions of what is the intention of Fr. Vincoy, whether there’s an intention to subtly shift the issue to make it a political thing or not.”

Perdices stressed the article speaks for itself, that it is the opinion of the priest. He said Vincoy has no reason to lie because, if he does, “who am to believe in my Church anymore?”

Finally, Mayor Felipe Antonio Remollo would not want to assume that Vincoy did issue such statement in saying it could just be the version of the reporter who wants to sow intrigues. There is no proof that it was the priest who issued the statement. “Granting that it is true, it might not be because of the SLF,” said the mayor. —

Juancho R. Gallarde