Police to Tom: Put on record threats you received

THE police is asking Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña to put on record the threats that he has claimed to have received so that this can be validated and so that they can act on it.

Supt. Josephino Ligan, Police Regional Office in Central Visayas Regional Intelligence Division (PRO-7 RID ) deputy chief, said this amid Osmeña’s claims of receiving threats on his life in a text message that he recently posted in his Facebook page after the attack against Tejero Councilman Jessielou Cadungog.

Ligan said that as far as the police were concerned they still had not received any reports about the threats against Mayor Osmeña.

Supt. Artemio Ricabo, Cebu City Police Office (CCPO) deputy city director for administration, also said that CCPO had not received any threat reports against the mayor and even the precinct commander of the Guadalupe police precinct, the barangay where the mayor resides.

Cebu Daily News tried to get Mayor Osmeña’s reaction about his being asked to put on record the threats against him, but he did not send a reply to the question.

However, in an earlier interview, he said that he did not trust the PRO-7. (See related story on Page 1)

Ricabo also said that although Osmeña had no police escorts after these were released by the national government, the Cebu City Police Office director Royina Garma had already deployed a SWAT (Special Weapons and Tactics) team to secure the mayor.

Meanwhile, Ligan cited the process on threat assessment of a person, who should put on record the threat that he or she received as basis for the validation to be conducted by the police.

He said that this would involve a letter to the PRO-7 director, who would forward it to office of the Police Security Protection Group (PSPG-7), and then to the the national headquarters, which would take about a month to process. / with Correspondent Rosalie O. Abatayo