ILIGAN City ― Only ten supporters are allowed to participate in the scheduled “Unity Walk” this afternoon.
According to Police Major Zandrex Panolong, Philippine National Police spokesman here, there will be a “staging area” for each of the participating team, then they will all walk towards the PNP Camp Tomas Cabiili at Tipanoy this city where there will be an “interfaith rally” but each team will not mix with the other teams. There will also be a covenant signing, he added.
Earlier today, Vice Mayor Jemar Vera Cruz enjoined his supporters on-air that they all meet at Tipanoy, several meters away from the camp, and to wear their red uniforms. They will then walk together towards the police camp. The red team under Mayor Celso Regencia will come in full force, although it was posted on their Facebook wall that they will just be “outside the gate” of the camp.
Vice mayoral candidate of the blue team, Marianito Alemania, said that their team will be wearing white shirts to signify peace.
The Partido Alyansa ng Bagong Iligan team, led by its mayoral candidate Atty. Leo Zaragoza said that they “will not participate as the exercise reeks of dishonesty.”
The red team is liable for “coercion” he said as job orders are made to “recruit” 10 people and after that 15 people are under threat of losing their job order status.
Meanwhile, the lawyer said the blue team of which Congressman Frederick Siao is the leading figure also has their own strategy where all beneficiaries of the Department of Labor and Employment “has to pass through his office,” adding that “this exercise is just a mockery” and “very laughable.”
He said that during the meeting before the said exercise, there were “altercations” between the red and blue teams as reported by a representative of his team.
Meanwhile, another team, the “Tatak Iliganon,” under mayoral bet Rudolph Charles Tamula, is silent on the matter and so is another mayoral bet Angel Cruz.
