CITY hall yesterday denied that a member of a group who posed as a general in an attempt to get in strife-torn Marawi City on Wednesday had anything to do with the city government.
The denial came after one of the suspects identified as Pacito Villanueva yielded an ID bearing an erstwhile seal of Cagayan de Oro.
City hall spokesperson Maricel Rivera said Villanueva is not connected with city hall based on the database of the local government’s human resources office.
Rivera also pointed out that the words “Dakbayan sa Cagayan de Oro” in the seal printed on Villanueva’s ID were no longer being used by city hall. She said the words were used in an old seal that city hall stopped using when Oscar Moreno became mayor.
Villanueva, 45, of Bukidnon, yielded an ID that indicated that he was a “3-star general” is one of the seven-person group police arrested while they were trying to get in Marawi City.
Chief Supt. Reuben Teodore Sindac, police director for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, said the suspects were in police and military uniform when they tried to enter the city from Iligan City, an act that made authorities suspicious of their motive.
Sindac identified the other suspects as Ariel Bejaan, 45, of Cagayan de Oro City; Junifer Adlawan Alestre, 52, of Valencia, Bukidnon; Bienvenido Sepe, 62, of Kabacan, North Cotabato; Florante Alejandrino, 38, of Cagayan de Oro; Rufina Guyatao, 53, of Valencia, Bukidnon; and Elsie Lantong, 48, of Sumilao, Bukidnon.
Sindac said the suspects were riding a white Toyota Fortuner driven by Leo Eliseo, 52, of Bukidnon, when they were flagged down by members of the Lanao del Sur police led by Chief Insp. John Acasio.
When checked, the suspects presented various IDs of Moro National Liberation Front, and IDs indicating they were “generals.” They were also in military uniform.
“They claimed they were at a scheduled meeting in Marawi City with a member of the United Nations, named Capt. James Gothrie,” Sindac said in a statement.
Seized from them were their uniforms, patches, mobile phones, and other paraphernalia. They were unarmed.
They were charged with unauthorized use of military and police uniforms, Sindac said. (with reports from pna)
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