ILOILO City – The Police Regional Office 6 (PRO-6) is being swamped with phone calls and text messages linking several midterm election candidates to illegal gambling operations as financiers.
Informants claimed these candidates were raising funds through the illegal numbers game bookies to finance their campaign, according to Chief Superintendent John Bulalacao, regional police director.
The information, however, needed validation first thus Bulalacao said he won’t be publicly identifying these candidates for now.
The campaign period for the May 13 midterm elections begins on March 29.
Bulalacao said the candidates being linked to illegal gambling were running for mayor, town councilor and even congressman.
“Appropriate charges will be filed against them if we have evidence,” said Bulalacao.
He did not discount the possibility of arresting those caught in the act.
“I ordered my police chiefs across the region to exert more effort to arrest those engaged in illegal gambling para walang kita ang mga kandidato na ito para sa kanilang kampanya,” said Bulalacao.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency Region 6 is being flooded with text messages linking several candidates to illegal drugs.
“Pero we have to verify these information first. We need to know the truth about these reports na pumapasok sa atin,” said Director Alex Tablate.
He thus declined to name these candidates identified in the text messages./PN
