Pagadian mayor tagged in Aman scam lying low but not hiding, says lawyer

Pagadian City Mayor Samuel S. Co. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

ILIGAN CITY, Philippines—Pagadian City Mayor Samuel Co, who has been slapped with an arrest warrant for his alleged role in the Aman Futures investment scam, has been rarely seen in Pagadian these days but he has not been hiding, the executive’s lawyer said on Wednesday.

“Mayor Co may be scarcely seen in Pagadian because he campaigns throughout the first district,” Trixie Angeles said in a text message sent to the Inquirer.

Co, a Liberal Party stalwart is gunning for a congressional seat in the first district — made of the towns of Aurora, Dumingag, Josefina, Labangan, Mahayag, Midsalip, Molave, Ramon Magsaysay, Sominot, Tambulig, Tukuran — and is pitted against re-electionist Victor Yu, an ally of Governor Antonio Cerilles.

Co is being hunted down after he made himself scarce in Pagadian City following the issuance of an arrest warrant against him and nine other persons by Presiding Judge Alberto Quinto of the Regional Trial Court here on April 11.

The nine other persons, whom Quinto had ordered arrested along with Co, were top Aman executive Manuel Amalilio, Fernando Luna, Lelian Lim Gan, Eduardo Lim, Wilanie Fuentes, Naezelle Rodriguez, Lurix Lopez, Jerome Sanchez and Oliver Dequito.

The warrant is in connection with the syndicated estafa case that Aman investor Julius Labunog has filed at Quinto’s sala. Labunog has claimed he and his group were duped by Co and Aman Futures for a combined amount of P29.63 million.

The reports that Co has gone into hiding got a boost when Zamboanga del Norte board member Ernesto Mondarte claimed that the mayor “hastily left Pagadian City on Thursday (April 11) afternoon” following the issuance of the warrant of arrest.

“He was in the middle of a meeting with his trusted barangay officials at the executive hall of Pagadian City when he received information he was to be arrested. He hastily left that meeting and Pagadian City,” Mondarte had told the Philippine Daily Inquirer.

But Angeles said it was normal for the mayor not to be seen in Pagadian City these days as he was always out of town to “(focus) on building solid connections with the people in towns under the first district of Zamboanga del Sur, which are known to be the bailiwick of the Cerilleses.”

Angeles also told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that Co has been “actively campaigning and is with the people who are supportive and protective of him.”

Earlier, Co – also allied with former Zamboanga del Norte Representative and convicted child rapist Romeo Jalosjos – hinted that the “politically tainted” efforts to link him to the Aman scam have put his life in jeopardy.

He said at least four of his supporters have been shot dead.

The latest, he said, was John Paul Go, a member of his security staff who was shot dead in Pagadian City on Nov. 27, 2012.

Co said Go was the fourth person he trusted to be killed since the Aman Futures controversy broke out.

His other slain supporters, he said, were Rene Ebol, the head of the city’s barangay (village) affairs office; Evelyn Declaro, a former barangay chair and assigned at the Solid Waste Management Office; and Arthur Hadjirul of the city’s barangay affairs office.

“Until now nothing has been done to find out who the killers were. All of them were shot to death,” Co said in the earlier interview with the Inquirer.

Angeles said Co “has not left Pagadian City” and “is participating in the judicial processes and facing the Regional Trial Court (RTC).”

“In short, he is facing the charges against him,” Angeles said.

But she hinted that Co had no intention to surrender to the court, saying the mayor had challenged the validity of the warrant of arrest that Quinto had issued.

Quinto had made it clear that Co and the other accused could not post bail and that law enforcers should “bring them to the nearest detention center or jail as soon as possible to be dealt with according to the law.”