Lawyer denies saying he’ll cut his arms if Regencia is freed

By Nora Soriño
Iligan City Bureau Chief .

Iligan City — A lawyer here has denied saying that he vowed to let his hands be cut off if Mayor Celso Regencia is freed from jail.

Alfredo Busico, who is running for another term as city councilor, said he never uttered such words during Regencia’s detention.

To recall, Regencia was detained for more than a year at city jail in connection with the ambush of the convoy of then Congressman Vicente Belmonte near the Laguindingan airport on Dec. 11, 2014, where two of his aides were killed. Belmonte came out unscathed. The mayor was then tagged as the “mastermind” of the botched ambush, thus his subsequent imprisonment.

On Jan. 30, 2016, he was released as the charges against the mayor in connection with the ambush were dismissed.

Regencia ran again for a second term as mayor in the 2016 elections where most of the candidates who ran under his ticket won.

The mayor then said, in one of his emotion-filled speeches, that he will surely cut the lawyer’s hands if he ran into him.

After such denial of what he supposedly said, Busico greeted the mayor on air with a “good morning,” adding that the statement which he attributed to Jun Lino Bacus a radioman who is an avid supporter of the mayor was simply “not true.”

He said he has since forgiven Bacus for uttering such words which were attributed to him.

He said he did not react as “I am a lawyer”  and he had become such because he himself was  a radioman before he became a lawyer.

Busico added that the statement which put him in the bad light didn’t react since it was still “publicity” and could bolster his chance for a seat since it would give a “recall” of his name during election day.

Busico is running under the ticket of Rep. Frederick Siao, Marianito Alemania, and Sammy Huertas.