Duterte mum over probe into paper-eating case involving suspect

DAVAO CITY – Vice Mayor Rodrigo Duterte preferred to keep mum in the ongoing investigation of the Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) over reports that he let a fraud suspect eat a fake land title inside a police station here Tuesday last week.

“There’s a time for everything, now is my time to remain silent,” Duterte said over the Sunday television and radio program “Gikan sa masa, para sa masa,” over reports that he made suspected swindler Manolito Gavas eat the fake land title that latter used to convince squatters to claim a stake in a titled lot in Matina Aplaya for a fee of P250 each.

Gavas claimed to head the Veterans Legionnaire of World War II who, he said, could claim any vacant lot in the country, under a Supreme Court decision, which he also allegedly made up.

Police arrested Gavas on Monday for malicious mischief, grave threats, trespassing, qualified theft and syndicated estafa by falsifying public documents, days after he led informal settlers to occupy the lot owned by Victoria Reformina in Victoria Village in Barangay Matina Aplaya.

From his prison cell, however, Gavas, apologized to Duterte. “I apologize to vice mayor Duterte, he can expect it will not happen again,” Gavas said on Friday.

Earlier in the week, Duterte told reporters it was not a piece of paper, but a gum Gavas was chewing to explain the footage caught by a television camera.

Duterte said he would talk and explain his side in the proper forum.