Baguio demolition head survives attack

BAGUIO CITY — The female head of the city’s demolition squad survived an attempt on her life Tuesday night.

But engineer Nazita Bañez, 36, is now confined at the Saint Louis University Sacred Heart Hospital for a gunshot wound in her buttock.

A suspect, identified as Rudy Kingod, 23, was arrested.

Police said Bañez was walking home after her class at the University of Baguio law school at about 8:45 p.m. when a man overtook and shot her with a caliber .45 pistol.

Wounded, Bañez shouted for help, alerting two parking personnel of the University of Baguio. They gave chase even as the suspect fired four gunshots, wounding a still unidentified pedestrian.

Police believe that Kingod was a gun-for-hire. He, however, has kept mum on who ordered him to attack Bañez.

Superintendent Francisco Manalo Jr., city police chief, suspects that the attempt on Bañez’s life was job-related.

Mayor Bernardo Vergara echoed Manalo’s suspicion.

Bañez has reportedly received several death threats, having personally led demolitions of illegal stalls in the city’s public market and squatter shanties throughout the city.

Manalo had provided her with a bodyguard but the latter was not around when she was attacked. The policeman, who requested anonymity, admitted that they became lax on the security arrangement when the city government declared a moratorium on demolitions early this month.

Last week, Bañez was denounced by thousands of squatters and illegal vendors during a march-rally along Session Road.

More than 600 families were rendered homeless due to the series of demolitions this year, according to the Organisasyon Dagiti Nakurapay nga Unili ti Syudad (ORNUS), an urban poor group.