By Edwin O. Fernandez
COTABATO CITY, Aug 21 (PNA) — Rep. Nancy Catamco of North Cotabato’s second district has vehemently denied she has been coddling the gunmen of an Italian missionary priest killed in 2011, describing the issue as “political” and a black propaganda aimed at destroying her ahead of the 2016 elections.
“This issue has come out in the 2013 elections, now it resurfaced,” Catamco, a member of the Liberal Party, said in a statement.
Catamco said one group which claimed to be working for the indigenous peoples but affiliated with the communist movement was behind the black propaganda against her.
The Apo Sandawa Lumadnong Panaghiusa sa Cotabato (ASLPC) was the group Catamco was referring to. “I suspect that this group was prodded to rehearse their failed attempt to unseat me as representative of North Cotabato’s 2nd district,” she said in a statement.
The ASLCP is also composed of the group of IPs who called for Catamco’s ouster as chair of the House Committee on Indigenous Peoples because of what transpired at the IPs in a Church compound in Davao City last July.
About 1,000 IP individuals were encamped at the United Church of Christ in the Philippines (UCCP) in Davao City and served as IP evacuation centers from Talaingod in Davao del Norte and Fernando, Bukidnon.
The IPs claimed they abandoned their homes because of heavy presence of the military in their communities.
As IP herself and chair of House IP committee, Catamco wanted the evacuees to leave the Haran compound and return to their respective communities “because they do not deserve to be treated like evacuees.”
Fr. Peter Geremiah, a colleague of Fr. Fausto ‘Pops’ Tentorio, parish priest in Arakan town in North Cotabato, has accused Catamco as coddler of Tentorio’s killers.
But she said the accusation was aimed at destroying her reputation because it was baseless and politically motivated.
Geremiah and ASLPC leaders said Catamco was behind the release of brothers Jimmy Ato and his brother Robert who were tagged as the gunmen in Tentorio killing. They were arrested by agents of the National Bureau of Investigation in 2012.
The group also accused Catamco of coddling Jun Corbala, a aleader of an anti-communist group called Bagani in North Cotabato.
“There was no hard evidence that I coddled criminals,” Catamco said even as she challenged Geremiah to show proof of his allegations. (PNA)