CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY—Iligan City Mayor Celso Regencia is not responsible for name-shaming two of the city’s former lawmakers, whom President Rodrigo Duterte also mentioned and alleged as illegal drug protectors, the mayor’s spokesman said.
Regencia’s spokesman Jose Pantoja said the mayor “has no motive” to have former mayor and Congressman Lawrence Cruz and ex-Rep. Vicente Belmonte included in the President’s narco-list, and even challenged both men to file legal action against Duterte for implicating them in the region’s illegal drug activities.
Belmonte, who accused Regencia as the mastermind of a plot to kill him in 2014, used to represent the city’s lone congressional district.
Pantoja said there is no truth to the allegation that Regencia and IliganCity police director Senior Superintendent Leon Roy Ga provided Duterte the names of Cruz and Belmonte.
In his speech before business leaders on Monday, Duterte mentioned “Representative Vicente” and “Mayor Lawrence” as just two of the political figures involved in the illegal drug trade in Northern Mindanao.
Duterte also said his exposé would eventually lead to the prosecution of the two former officials.
In an interview on Love Radio-Iligan on Tuesday, Cruz said he was the “Lawrence” being alluded to by the President, but denied he is a drug protector.
“I just want the people to know that [the accusation] is not true. I am innocent. Even if I must undergo a drug test today, I will test negative,” Cruz was quoted as saying.
Now that Duterte has mentioned his name, Cruz said he is afraid of ending up like Rolando Espinosa, the mayor of Albuera, Leyte who was killed by operatives of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group inside his cell at the Baybay, Leyte sub-provincial jail last month.
Cruz fears that his house will be raided and searched, and if law enforcers find nothing, they will resort to “planting” illegal drugs, and then later killed, he said.
Cruz said politics may be behind the accusation and assured his opponents he has no plans of running in the next elections.
But Pantoja challenged Cruz to sue Duterte instead of blamingRegencia and Ga. “It’s not like they can just order the President” to include Cruz and Belmonte in the narco-list, he added.
“Duterte has the power to order the law enforcement authorities through their intelligence units to verify the name of politicians involved in the illegal drug trade. (Cruz) must not blame Regencia right away,” he added.
Belmonte has yet to react to Duterte’s mention of his supposed drug involvement.