Politics behind ambush, says Pampanga mayor

MASANTOL, Pampanga — This town’s mayor, who survived an ambush attempt here last Feb. 12, insisted yesterday that politics was the motive behind the attempt on his life.

This, as Vice Mayor Jorge Bustos, brother of the alleged ambush mastermind, Chief Inspector Jorge Bustos, has remained missing since the incident.

"I am 105 percent sure that the motive behind the ambush was political," Mayor Peter Flores told The STAR.

Flores started reporting to work yesterday after being treated for a gunshot wound he sustained in his left abdomen during the ambush in Barangay Bebe Anac.

But Senior Superintendent Dindo Espina, Pampanga police director, said there is yet "no material evidence" to link the vice mayor to the ambush that killed the mayor’s security aide, SPO4 Nick Yabut, and wounded his driver, Rolando Manalang.

The mayor’s wife, Librada, who was also in the van during the ambush, was unhurt.

Flores, however, said charges of murder and two counts of frustrated homicide have been filed against the vice mayor’s brother, who has remained at large, and two alleged accomplices identified as Jesus Manalo and Jefferson Perez.

Manalo and Perez were arrested after the ambush when their motorcycle hit a road rump while they were fleeing.

Police sources said Yabut managed to fire back and wound two other suspects before he died.

The two wounded suspects boarded a tricycle and told its driver to proceed to the house of someone allegedly closely identified with the vice mayor in the compound of the Masantol Central Elementary School.

Police probers saw bloodstains in front of the house.

The existence of the two other suspects surfaced after the tricycle driver complained to the police that two wounded men who rode his vehicle on the night of the ambush failed to pay him.

Investigators found the house in the school compound padlocked. It has remained empty since the morning after the ambush, police said.

Flores said Vice Mayor Bustos has not reported to work since the ambush.

He said he is contemplating the filing of administrative charges against Bustos for abandoning his post.

"If he is not guilty, why has he remained in hiding?" he asked.

The STAR tried to reach Bustos via his cellular phone several times, but it was "unattended."

Chief Superintendent Alejandro Lapinid, Central Luzon police director, however, said Bustos has sent word to the police clarifying that he was not in hiding. He did not elaborate.

Flores said he knew of no personal enemies, but alleged that people identified with Bustos, including his policeman-brother, have been known to be campaigning this early for the mayoral post.

Flores and his companions were on their way home on board a Toyota van from a fund-raising party at the town plaza when they were ambushed in Sitio Marimla in Barangay Bebe Anac last Feb. 12.

The ambushers fired at the van’s heavily tinted front windows, killing Yabut who was seated in front and wounding Manalang.

Local folk said Flores usually sits near the driver, but opted to join his wife in the back seat on the day they were waylaid.