More bodyguards eyed for North Samar execs

TACLOBAN CITY—Top officials of Northern Samar are increasing the number of their bodyguards after communist rebels declared them to be “enemies of the people.”

Gov. Paul Daza, however, said this did not mean he and his father, Rep. Raul Daza, are scared.

He said if something bad happened to him or his father, they didn’t want the National Democratic Front (NDF) to be blamed.

In a statement, the NDF, the umbrella organization of underground leftist groups, accused the Daza father-and-son of involvement in crimes against the people in Northern Samar that included plunder, corruption, illegal drugs and illegal gambling.

Chief Supt. Elmer Soria, police chief of Eastern Visayas, said police would assess the threat to the Dazas.

Governor Daza, who is seeking reelection, described as “baseless” the NDF accusations.

The NDF accused the Dazas of draining funds from the P3-billion budget of an irrigation project called Help Catubig Agricultural Advancement Project.

The project, funded by a loan from Japan, started in 2001 and remained unfinished more than 10 years later. The reason, according to the NDF, was that the Dazas milked the project so badly that they got up to 30 percent of the project cost.

The Dazas denied this. Governor Daza said while his father, Representative Daza, was governor when the project started in 2001, the family had no direct role in the project implementation.