"I was nowhere near the place where the incident took place. Allusions that I had a direct hand in the murder are simply unfounded," Crisologo said.
He asserted that his differences with the slain mayor should not be misconstrued as a bitter quarrel.
"The rift between us should not be seen as personal since I was only pointing out his lapses," Crisologo said in apparent reference to two administrative charges he lodged against Benwaren before the provincial board.
Lenin Benwaren, younger brother of the slain mayor, hinted in a radio interview that Crisologo could be directly involved in the gunslaying.
"No one else is to be blamed but his political opponent," Lenin said.
A lone gunman shot Benwaren in the right temple with a caliber .45 automatic during a wedding ceremony in Calauan where the victim and his wife stood as principal sponsors.
Police had initially tagged New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas as the possible perpetrators, but did not rule out politics as a motive for the murder.
Sources said Benwaren had been on the hit list of the NPA’s Agustin Begnalen Command for alleged warlordism and maintaining a private army.
Crisologo, who took over the mayoralty post of Tineg following Benwaren’s death, has claimed some groups had a motive to assassinate Benwaren because the mayor’s goons have allegedly killed many people.
The communist guerrillas have accused the Benwarens of instigating politically motivated killings in Tineg and other parts of Abra province.
The vice mayor said his wife and children have received death threats through text messages and accused Benwaren’s camp of making the threats. "They even threatened to kidnap my four children."
Crisologo also held it unlikely that the assassination would spark "bodong" or tribal vengeance since the attack took place outside Abra and that the assassins could not be positively identified. – With Artemio Dumlao, Myds Supnad