‘If he yields, l’ll shoot him myself’

LIAN, Batangas — "If he surrenders, I’ll shoot him inside his cell."

Thus reacted, in between sobs, Mrs. Pacita Vergara, wife of this town’s slain mayor, Sixto Vergara, to reports that suspect Lorenzo Tolentino had sent surrender feelers to police authorities.

"Buhay ang inutang niya, kailangan buhay din ang kabayaran (He took a life, he should pay with his own)," Mrs. Vergara, visibly trembling with anger, told The STAR.

She recalled that her husband had raised his hand and pleaded for his life but an unmoved Tolentino still shot him, fatally hitting him in the chest and leg, in front of their house here last Monday morning.

The other day, Director Nestorio Gualberto, chief of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG), said Tolentino had called up provincial police authorities and expressed his intention to give himself up.

Despite Tolentino’s surrender feelers, Gualberto said he has dispatched two CIDG teams to hunt him down, especially in Metro Manila where he is believed to be in hiding.

Mrs. Vergara believes that her husband’s killing was politically motivated and that "someone big is supporting" Tolentino. She refused to elaborate.

"They are envious of what my husband did to Lian’s progressive status. They are desperate because there’s no other way to beat my husband as town mayor but to kill him," she said.

Mayor Vergara, allied with the political party of former President Joseph Estrada, was serving his second term.