Pro-Poe colonel arrested

A senior Army official accused of electioneering was arrested in Zamboanga City yesterday.

Reports said Col. Jose Gamus was picked up by the military at the house of his classmate, Navy Capt. Geronimo Defensor, in Barangay San Roque, Zamboanga City.

Defensor accompanied Gamus before Southern Command chief Lt. Gen. Roy Kyamko at Camp Navarro.

Gamus was ordered arrested by the Army for alleged electioneering activities in Mindanao.

The army officer was particularly sighted in the island province of Sulu for alleged partisan activities, Army spokesman Lt. Col. Buenaventura Pascual said.

"He was sighted in Barangay San Roque, Zamboanga City at the house of his friend, Navy Capt. Geronimo Defensor, his classmate at PMA (Philippine Military Academy) who is assigned at the Southern Command," Pascual said.

After being presented to Kyamko, Gamus was escorted by the military police and flown to Manila where he will be placed under house arrest in Fort Bonifacio, Pascual said.

Pascual assured the Army command will be extending fair treatment to Gamus while under investigation.

A member of PMA Class ’76, Gamus’ arrest elicited various reactions from his "mistahs."

Chief Superintendent Jefferson Soriano, Cagayan Valley regional police director and class president, described the arrest of Gamus as "unfortunate."

"It is a very unfortunate incident if ever it is true, because it has yet to be proven by the authorities concerned," Soriano said in a statement.

"However ... the class vows to maintain its constitutional mandate of being apolitical. We, the members of the class, hope for an earlier resolution of the case so that it will be put to rest once and for all," Soriano said.

A member of the class, on the other hand, said he was not surprised that Gamus was arrested for alleged electioneering activities.

He said Gamus’ actions in the past months have been monitored to be "bordering between his military career and his political inclinations."

It was learned that Gamus was actively campaigning for Koalisyon ng Nagkakaisang Pilipino (KNP) presidential candidate Fernando Poe Jr.

No less than his classmate, Col. Nehemias Pajarito, commander of the Sulu-based 104th Infantry Brigade, reported Gamus’ activities to the Army top brass.

Pajarito’s report was independently confirmed by Brig. Gen. Gabriel Habacon, commander of the military’s joint Task Force Comet based in Western Mindanao. Habacon also reported out Gamus’ alleged political activities in Zamboanga Sibugay.

Gamus has repeatedly denied the charges by claiming he was in Mindanao on personal business.