By Danny O Sagun

Dagupan City (12 November) -- The slain leader of the dreaded robbery gang was once treated of wounds at the house of a Pangasinan mayor being linked to the group, it was revealed Thursday in a media forum.

Sr. Supt. Percival Barba, police provincial director, said that San Nicolas Mayor Leoncio Saldivar III himself revealed to the police that Alvin Flores was treated at the mayor's house some three months ago of wounds sustained from an encounter with the police. "Ayon sa kanya nagmamagandang loob lamang," he told the KBP Forum at the Philippine Information Agency.

Barba said that while the provincial police office was conducting its own "tasking," the matter was up for investigation and proper action by concerned units particularly the National Capital Region police force under Director Roberto Rosales, who used to head the Dagupan City police.

He said he was not aware if a case against the mayor for allegedly harboring a criminal had already been filed.

Saldivar, in separate media interviews, denied any involvement with the robbery group although he admitted that some of the members used to work with him at his farm and at the municipal hall. He said that he did not know any of their criminal activities.

Attempts to link him with the group was politically motivated, he maintained, adding that such efforts by his enemies could "not put a good man down."

Barba along with police Regional Director Ramon Gatan reportedly saw the mayor after his name was dragged into the case by a member of the group who was arrested in eastern Pangasinan.

The provincial director said that Saldivar cooperated with police investigators.

Flores, along with three members, was killed in a shootout in Cebu with operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation, days after robbing a watch store in the upscale Makati Greenbelt.

Barba said that six come from Pangasinan out of the 11 members of the group.

Meanwhile, the provincial police office already neutralized many organized groups including gun-for-hire operating in Pangasinan and nearby provinces, he claimed, citing the killing of suspected kidnap for ransom gang members in Urdaneta City and later in Dagupan.