Ilocos Norte judge slain in ambush

BATAC, Ilocos Norte — Four weeks after the ambush of the provincial auditor of neighboring Ilocos Sur and his driver, an executive judge was next to fall in another daring daylight ambush here yesterday.

Superintendent Romeo Espiritu, Ilocos Norte police director, said Executive Judge Ariston Rubio of Regional Trial Court Branch 18 here, was on his way to court aboard a red Mercedes Benz when two motorcycle-riding men opened fire at him at about 9 a.m. along the national highway in Barangay Maghuang here.

Probers found 10 empty shells and one live bullet of a US Carbine in the ambush scene.

Espiritu said investigators are looking into several warrants of arrest which Rubio recently issued which he claimed might provide leads in the case. He did not elaborate.

Sources claimed that an electoral protest involving a hotly contested mayoral seat is pending in Rubio’s sala and might have a bearing on his slaying.

In the neighboring province of Ilocos Sur, auditor Agustin Chan Jr. and his driver, Alex Regacho, were also killed in an ambush by still unidentified men in Bantay town last Oct. 4.

The Chan-Regacho ambush-killing remains unsolved with Ilocos Sur police director Felix Cimatu Jr. bewailing the lack of witnesses.

Rubio, who also served as RTC judge in Ilocos Sur before his Batac assignment, was described as "fair and unassuming." He had a flair for punctuality, appearing at his sala earlier than the scheduled hearings.

He resided in Barangay One in Badoc town where he had come from when he was waylaid. — With Myds Supnad and Artemio Dumlao