LAKAS-CMD Kampi candidate for councilor Harry Radaza said a photo of Lito Ruiz after he filed his certificate of candidacy (COC) showed he was lying when he disowned the two men who gatecrashed a City Hall party.
“The pictures are clear. These tell us that Lito Ruiz is a liar,” he said. Ruiz, an undersecretary at the Department of Interior and Local Government, is running for congressman in the new lone district of Lapu-Lapu City against Mayor Arturo Radaza.
In a related development, a Muslim community leader went to the police office yesterday to report a threat on his life, a day after he shifted support to City Councilor Junard Chan.
“Nianhi ko sa Cebu, Sir, para manginabuhi. Dili lang unta ko hilabtan kay mosukol raba gyod ko (I came to Cebu to make a living. I hope no one will interfere with me, because I will fight back),” Sultan Pascan said.
He said he heard about the threat from fellow Muslims, who told him to be extra vigilant because unfamiliar people were looking for him.
He also said it was of his own will when he decided to shift support and the people in his community in Barangay Pajac promised to rally behind him.
What a picture tells
The photo of Ruiz with Alfie Gabato, a member of the International Guardians Brotherhood Association, was taken by Erik Monsanto, a City Hall photographer. It shows Ruiz and his wife, Rep. Nerissa Soon-Ruiz, cheering with their supporters in front of City Hall. It shows Gabato wearing an ID from the Nationalist People’s Coalition.
Gabato and Valeriano Bacalso, 33, a former member of the Barangay Intelligence Network (BIN), entered the city’s cultural and sports complex, allegedly drunk, while Mayor Radaza and his wife, Paz, were hosting a Christmas party for 600 barangay workers last Dec. 21.
Guardians
Bacalso allegedly approached Harry, the mayor’s nephew, at the presidential table to ask for food.
As Bacalso bent over to pick up a slice of fried pork that had fallen, Harry saw a revolver inside the former’s bag.
Bacalso and Gabato were accosted by civilian security personnel at the party and turned over to the police, together with the gun. Police charged them with illegal possession of an unlicensed firearm.
Ruiz, who is a “supremo” of the Guardians, has insisted he did not know the two.
But Harry said he believes it was Ruiz who sent the two allegedly drunk men to gatecrash the Christmas party.
“Kay mao’y ilang gusto nga i-butang sa Comelec control ang Lapu-Lapu, maong ila ta dinhing gisamok (They want Lapu-Lapu placed under Comelec control, that’s why they’re causing trouble here),” he said.
