MANILA, Philippines--The Philippine National Police (PNP) is investigating reports that local politicians are using organized crime groups to raise funds for their election campaigns, according to PNP chief Director General Jesus Verzosa.

Verzosa made the statement as a Pangasinan town mayor, who was linked to the operations of the crime group Alvin Flores Gang, admitted some members of the gang had worked in the town and the municipal hall but were never his bodyguards.

San Nicolas Mayor Leoncio Saldivar III said Dennis Serquiña, arrested by Pangasinan police in Umingan town on Saturday, worked as a security guard in his pig farm in 2008.

Serquiña, the mayor said, left after three days.

The mayor said gang members “approached me to ask for jobs and I told them all I could offer them are allowances.”

Saldivar said Serquiña was hired with Armando Domingo last year. Domingo was killed after bodyguards of Taguig City Mayor Freddie Tinga opened fire at gang members during a heist at a Rolex watch store in Greenbelt 5 in Makati City on Oct. 18.

On Monday, another suspected member of the gang, Warlito Rodriquito, surrendered in Tayug town after Saldivar convinced him to give up.

Rodriquito is a utility worker at the San Nicolas town hall.

Saldivar said Rodriquito’s presence became scarce at the town hall a month ago and found that Rodriquito, a former soldier, was suffering from rheumatism.

He said when police linked Rodriquito to the gang, he sent word convincing him to surrender.

“I have nothing to fear because I have a clear conscience,” Saldivar said. “I could not control how they think and I did know of their activities.”

Senior Supt. Percival Barba, Pangasinan police director, quoted Serquiña as saying during interrogation that he and four other members of the gang were the mayor’s bodyguards.

Barba, however, declined to identify Saldivar and the two suspected gang members that Serquiña had named.

Police sources said Serquiña also named Roger Carbonell and Jay-R Saldivar as the mayor’s supposed bodyguards. The sources could not say how Mayor Saldivar is related to Jay-R Saldivar.

“I think we should also give [him the] benefit of the doubt,” Barba said of the mayor.

He said Serquiña’s arrest was a product of surveillance that the local police conducted after his office received information that the Alvin Flores Gang had members who hailed from Pangasinan.

Alvin Flores, the gang’s leader, and three of his men were killed in a clash with National Bureau of Investigation agents in a beach house in Compostela, Cebu, on Oct. 29.

The NBI said it was conducting follow up operations for the rest of the gang members that could lead to the crime syndicate’s dismantling. Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon with Marlon Ramos and Jeannette I. Andrade in Manila