Comelec, security officials decide Makati's fate today

MANILA, Philippines - Metro Manila police chief Director Roberto Rosales is set to meet today with his counterparts from the Commission in Elections and the military to determine whether or not to place or not Makati City under Comelec control.

“We would review our validation of the situation in Makati City and decide whether to place the area under Comelec control or not,” Rosales said in an interview.

He called the attention of lawyer Michael Dioneda of the Comelec-National Capital Region and Admiral Felix Angue of the National Capital Region Command (NCRCom) on the call of mayoralty bet Councilor Jejomar Erwin Binay Jr. to place the city under Comelec control following the killing of his supporter, Bernardo Olarte, in Barangay Guadalupe Viejo last Wednesday and the failed ambush of his godfather, businessman Gerardo Limlingan, in Cainta, Rizal on March 21.

The Makati City mayoralty bet claimed that the twin attacks were “politically motivated.”

Binay’s father, vice presidential bet and incumbent Mayor Jejomar Binay, said with Makati under Comelec control, Binay said the poll body can exercise direct control over the police and can order the deployment of additional police and military personnel to ensure strict compliance with election laws.

Meanwhile, the younger Binay’s rival, Makati Vice Mayor Ernesto Mercado, also called on the Comelec to place the city under its control and order the Philippine National Police to form a task force to stop the killings.

Mercado’s spokesman, lawyer Chito Salud, said Binay’s camp labeled Olarte’s killing as politically motivated, but “it now turns out that the Olarte family told police that the (victim) was a party to quarrels over money, including a land dispute.”

Salud said the attack on Limlingan, known to be the elder Binay’s personal liaison officer to the business community, is similar to the assassination of Binay’s former security chief Pablo Glean, who was killed at a gas station in Taguig City in September 2006.

Salud said Glean was the head of Makati’s business permits and licensing office and police officers wanted to investigate the possibility that Glean may have been killed because of his duties as the city permits officer.

He alleged that the elder Binay refused to cooperate with the police when they tried to check this angle, and that the mayor insisted Glean was killed because he uncovered an assassination plot against him reportedly hatched by the Arroyo administration. – With Jose Rodel Clapano