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 鈥渇abricated and malicious.鈥�
She said she took Toyoca鈥檚 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