Lim’s top aide denies stonewalling cops

Manila Mayor Alfredo Lim’s right-hand man, who survived an ambush attempt in Quezon City Thursday night, denied allegations that they were not cooperating with police officers investigating the incident.

Lawyer Rafaelito Garayblas, who works as secretary to the mayor, was reportedly criticized because his two security escorts, Jay Paningbatan and Romel Javier, did not surrender their firearms for ballistics examination.

“Why should we surrender our firearms when we are the complainants?” he said in a statement, adding that they did not receive a request from the Quezon City Police District (QCPD) to surrender the firearms.

He also denied sending a police investigator away, contrary to the claims made by Superintendent Franklin Moises Mabanag, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit of the QCPD.

Mabanag earlier said Garayblas’ camp did not let QCPD police officers in when they visited the security escorts at the University of Santo Tomas Hospital, nor did the Manila official want to show the papers for the guns used by the security escorts.

Garayblas was ambushed as he was on his way home to East Fairview. His security escorts and son, Pio, traded shots with the armed suspects, who were on two motorcycles.

The shootout left one suspect dead. Garayblas’ son, Paulo Ernesto, and security escorts were wounded during the attack.

Garayblas said two of his companions saw “bystanders” Zosimo Buco, a balut vendor, and Andy Tupaz as among those who fired at them. The two were also wounded.

“How can we coordinate when we only found out from the news that Buco and Tupaz were positive for powder burns?” he said.

Baltazar Tupaz, 40; Ma. Theresa Manuel and Jan Miriam Paez, 14, reportedly bystanders, were also wounded in the attack.   – Evelyn Macairan