Politics ruled out in mayor’s ambush

STA. ROSA, Laguna — Police have ruled out politics and are reportedly eyeing a possible love angle in the ambush of this town’s mayor last Sunday night.

Senior Superintendent Edwin Corvera, Laguna police director, said that while all angles are being explored, politics is the least possible motive because Mayor Leon Arcillas has no known "tough" political rivals.

Arcillas, president of the Laguna Mayors’ League, is now serving his second term as mayor of this town since he beat former mayor Tito Gonzalez in 1998.

Arcillas himself ruled out politics behind his ambush.

The mayor was on his way home aboard an Isuzu Hi-lander when a motorcycle-riding man peppered his car with bullets in Barangay Tagapo.

The mayor, who had just inducted the officers of the Rosadas Homeowners Association in Amihan Village, was at the back seat with a private bodyguard. He was hit by a bullet in the right thigh.

Police believe the gunman was not a professional killer since he failed to hit his target despite knowing where the mayor was seated and after firing several shots.

At his hospital bed shortly before he was operated on, Arcillas admitted that he has been receiving death threats but that he merely ignored them because he said he has not wronged anyone.

He said the attempt on his life could have something to do with the demolition of squatter shanties in the town.

Police said Arcillas was accompanied by two escorts, Arsenio Mayano and Orlando Ovilla, when they were ambushed at about 7:15 p.m. last Sunday.

But witnesses said a woman was with him when the ambush occurred. The woman, they said, alighted at the barangay hall in Tagapo where the mayor’s driver sped to as the gunman fired at the van.

The gunman did not chase Arcillas’ group and instead fled toward Barangay Poblacion. Seven empty caliber .45 shells were found at the ambush site.