Mayor Loot denies stealing camera

DAANBANTAYAN Mayor Ma. Luisa Loot denied stealing a digital camera owned by the supporter of an opposing party.

In a counter-affidavit submitted to the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas where she faces a probe on robbery filed by Shellice Toyoca, the mayor said charges against here were “fabricated and malicious.”

She said she took Toyoca’s digital camera but turned over it to the police. The digital camera was used as evidence in a case she filed against Toyoca for unjust vexation.

A verbal confrontation ensued between Loot and barangay captain candidate Hiram Benatiro, a retired police officer, after she went to the Tapilon Elementary School to verify reports that Benatiro was harrassing members of a Board of Election Inspectors (BEI).

She confiscated the digital camera of Toyoca, a supporter of Benatiro who took pictures of her.

The mayor said that she felt harassed, took the camera and later turned it over to policemen stationed outside the school./REPORTER ADOR VINCENT S. MAYOL