7 nabbed for carrying gun, distributing leaflets vs mayor in Muntinlupa

Sea of posters featuring election candidates in Metro Manila. ARNOLD ALMACEN, Inquirer

MANILA — Shortly after the end of the campaign season for the May 9 polls, police officials arrested seven men who pretended to be members of the media in distributing leaflets against re-election seeker, Muntinlupa Mayor Jaime Fresnedi.

Senior Supt. Nicolas Salvador, officer-in-charge of the Muntinlupa City Police, identified the suspects as Eufemio Reynaldo, Robert Andrew Enagan, Limuel de Luna, Michael Madarang, Ronaldo Manalo, Aldrin Bunyi, and Roberto Apostol.

A report by the city’s police station said the suspects were caught distributing leaflets at the corner of San Guillermo and Bruger Streets in Barangay Putatan in Muntinlupa around 12:10 a.m. on Sunday. The leaflets contained the masthead of a major broadsheet and a press release intended to attack the negative deeds of Fresnedi’s administration.

“Dukha na, inaapi pa (Already poor but oppressed further),” read the head of the leaflet, which was attached to a rolled national broadsheet. It also alleged that Fresnedi earned from the recent fires in the city.

Meanwhile, city government employees said the attempt at black propaganda was an act of a demolition job from one of Fresnedi’s rivals. One employee who asked for anonymity said that they were surprised by the attack on the mayor as his administration “only offers good governance to its people.”

Police recovered from the suspects a .45-caliber gun and black propaganda materials. The suspects will be charged with two counts of libel and illegal possession of firearms under the Omnibus Election Code. Further inquest proceedings will be done before the Muntinlupa City Prosecutor’s Office.

The suspects remain in the custody of the Muntinlupa police. (With reports from John Cyril Yee, trainee) SFM