BY GLENDA SOLOGASTOA
ILOILO City – Gov. Arthur Defensor Sr. advised the De Vicente family to sue the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Region 6 if they think the latter’s raid on their warehouse was illegal.
The governor was reacting to the allegation of former Sangguniang Kabataan provincial federation (SKMF) president Charmaine de Vicente that the NBI had done an illegal act of raiding the family’s warehouse in Barangay Napnud, Leganes, Iloilo on July 31 on the pretext that they were re-bagging more than 1,000 bags of National Food Authority (NFA) to pass them off as commercial rice.
Charmaine, daughter of rice trader Dennis De Vicente, personally visited the office of the governor to seek his advice.
The De Vicentes claimed the raid had no search warrant and the NBI allegedly ordered warehouse helpers to “re-enact” the re-bagging of rice.
They also claimed their warehouse workers were already resting when the NBI raided the warehouse, a scene which a closed-circuit television camera had allegedly captured.
“They must hire a lawyer and present the footage as evidence to prove it,” the governor said.
‘LET THE LAW TAKES IT COURSE’
“They should take action to defend themselves and let the law takes it course,” said San Enrique, Iloilo’s Mayor Ramona Palabrica Go, denying the De Vicentes’ imputation that she had influenced the NBI in the raid.
Go said she was the “retired general and incumbent politician” referred Charmaine as supposedly behind the raid.
“There is no other retired general who is a politician now in San Enrique,” said the mayor./PN
