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[av_heading tag=’h3′ padding=’10’ heading=’List links Negros VM to Maute’ color=” style=’blockquote modern-quote’ custom_font=” size=” subheading_active=’subheading_below’ subheading_size=’15’ custom_class=”]
BY MAE SINGUAY
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Thursday, June 15, 2017
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BACOLOD City – The vice mayor of Binalbagan, Negros Occidental was surprised to learn that he was in a list of 230 alleged Maute group supporters and financiers the government is hunting down.
Samuel Gavaran denied backing the Islamic State-linked local extremist group.
“How can I be involved in this [when] I was here in Binalbagan?” he said.
Defense secretary Delfin Lorenzana said their list included “local politicians,” some of whom lost in the 2016 elections, and “persons of influence.”
Upon learning this, Gavaran sought help from his lawyer, Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. and the Negros Occidental Police Provincial Office.
“I’m not a supporter of the Maute group,” Garavan stressed. “Their supporters are millionaires. I want the whole of Negros and the whole townsfolk of Binalbagan to know that my conscience is clear.”
It could be a namesake, Gavaran said, but he feared the issue has already “damaged” his “good political reputation.”
The vice mayor asked fellow politicians in Negros Occidental to help him clear his name.
The government was reportedly hunting down 230 people — including incumbent and former politicians — who allegedly supported/financed the Maute group that attacked Marawi City.
Lorenzana, administrator of the martial law in Mindanao, ordered them arrested./PN
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