President Rodrigo Duterte. RENE LUMAWAG / PRESIDENTIAL PHOTO
‘OBVIOUSLY’ A JOKE SAYS PANELO
MANILA, Philippines — Former Interior Secretary Manuel “Mar” Roxas II ordered the ambush of former police general and now Daanbantayan, Cebu, Mayor Vicente Loot, President Rodrigo Duterte said Tuesday in a speech in Davao City.
Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the statement was “obviously” a joke.
“Si Loot kaduha daw ma-ambush di mamatay-patay. Dili ako’y nagpa-ambush adto ha, si Roxas. Katong ordera to kang Roxas ba to, di to ako,” Duterte said in Visayan during the Barangay Summit on Good Governance in Region 11.
(Loot was ambushed twice but could not be killed. I did not order the ambush. It was Roxas. Roxas ordered his ambush, not me.)
After talking about the ambush of Loot, Duterte abruptly mentioned former Deputy Director General Marcelo Garbo Jr., a former police aide of Roxas.
“Because he (Roxas) was told… ‘Your Garbo, your senior police aide is involved in drugs’. That’s was why Roxas was irked. He said, ‘Patayin na lang ninyo para hindi tayo mapahiya’,” he added.
Duterte has accused Loot and Garbo, along with other former police generals, of protecting drug lords, an allegation the mayor vehemently denied.
Aside from Loot and Garbo, Duterte also accused former National Capital Region Police Office director Chief Superintendent Joel Pagdilao, former Quezon City Police District Office director Chief Superintendent Edgardo Tinio, former Western Visayas police Chief Superintendent Bernardo Diaz of drug links.
Sought for clarification, Panelo said Duterte “obviously” was just joking when he issued the allegation.
“Somebody who was present at the event said many in the audience who understood the joke laughed at it,” Panelo told INQUIRER.net in a text message on Wednesday morning.
In May 2018, Loot and his family survived an ambush at a wharf in Daanbatayan.
READ: Convoy of Cebu mayor on Duterte drug list ambushed
They just arrived from Malapascua island when unidentified gunmen opened fire at them. The attack left his body-guard wounded.