Three Cebu councilors ambushed

CEBU — Three re-electionist councilors of Tabuelan town survived an ambush by still unidentified men Monday night, authorities said.

Police probers are eyeing politics, personal grudge and the insurgency as a possible motive for the ambush in Barangay Mabunao in the northern town.

The councilors, Ray Oca, Flordeliza Velayo and Crisostomo Arnejo, all running for re-election under the Abag-Promdi party, were on their way to the fiesta celebration of a sitio in Mabunao when they were waylaid. Besides the driver, three hitchhikers were with the councilors in their Toyota pick-up.

Velayo said she saw three men in fatigues and white undershirts and heard one of them say "Gi-ingnan nga ayaw ug saka diri (We’ve told you not to come here)" before firing a shot in their direction.

Arnejo shouted at everyone to get out, and they all scrambled for safety out of the vehicle as more shots shattered the windshield. Oca, who was the last one to get out, nearly got hit.

Velayo said she heard one of the armed men say in forced Tagalog to look for any wounded before they set the vehicle on fire in the middle of the road.

Cebu police director Jose Antonio Salvacion said they are looking into three angles in the incident.

One theory is that the councilors earned the ire of communist rebels when they refused to pay "access fees."

Salvacion added that the attack could have been the handiwork of armed goons, or that the ambushers might have had personal grudges against the three councilors.

He said the victims’ vehicle bore only one bullet hole, although 12 empty .45 shells were found at the ambush scene. — Freeman News Service