About 80 members of the Murcia Consumers Alliance supposed to hold a dialog with their water district officials yesterday afternoon claimed that policemen prevented them from gathering in front of the Murcia Water District office.

Suzette Francisco Tuba, a member of the MUCA ad hoc committee, said the policemen, whom they said were members of the 6th Regional Mobile Group, stopped them on their way to the water district office.

The Murcia Police Station, however, said the policemen were members of the Provincial Mobile Group, not RMG.

They were also asked to put away their sound system and placards, she said, adding that firefighters were also on stand-by.

Lina Lazanas of the Murcia Business Alliance echoed Tuba's claim that policemen came after MUCA members who were holding an assembly yesterday.

Mayor Esteban Coscolluela, however, denied the claims of the MUCA members that he directed the policemen to harass them.

He said he merely informed their chief of police, Senior Inspector Simeon Gane, about the scheduled assembly of MUCA and Gane, in turn, sought assistance from the Negros Occidental Provincial Police Office that deployed 15 PMG troopers.

About 10 Murcia policemen were assigned to keep peace during the MUCA gathering. Coscolluela, who said he believes that politics was behind yesterday's mobilization, said that by deploying PMG troopers, provincial police director Rosendo Franco was "just doing his job."

The action was preventive in nature because there is an assassination plot against me, the mayor said.

Coscolluela said since there were reports that the group of Ranie Lava of party-list Anak Pawis, who was earlier identified by the "hitman" as among the person behind the plan to kill him, will take part in the assembly, the police acted to ensure peace and order.

He added that the Murcia police also enforced the "no permit, no rally" policy when they stopped the assembly of MUCA members.

Lazanas, who was allegedly the mastermind in the supposed assassination plot against Coscolluela, said they did not have a permit because their purpose was to hold a dialog, not a rally.

She added that their request to have dialog with the water district officials regarding the new water rates was not related to the alleged plot to kill Coscolluela.

Coscolluela said in his March 23 letter to MUCA that the real agenda of (their) group is "dubious" because they have Lazanas and Lava as their members.

He said he will only attend to individual concerns on the water rates, and will not deal with MUCA on the issue.

Tuba said water district head Ruben Tañeza did not meet with their group yesterday, instead he called up Salvador Malibong, also an ad hoc member of MUCA, and informed him that the he and directors will set a dialog later this week.*NLG

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