The attack came exactly a year after the mayor’s predecessor was gunned down right inside the town hall.
Superintendent Florendo Saligao, city police chief, said two of the four men riding tandem on a motorcycle first blocked the path of the black Isuzu Crosswind of Mayor Jose Catindig, 44, in Barangay Dita at about 9:45 p.m.
Then the two other men, also aboard a motorcycle, drove toward the right side of Catindig’s vehicle and fired several shots through the window.
Luckily, the mayor’s bullet-proof vest was hanging on the window, thus blocking the bullets intended for the mayor and leaving him unscathed.
Catindig’s security escorts, who were in a back-up vehicle, shot it out with the attackers, forcing them to withdraw immediately.
During the firefight, a stray bullet grazed a four-year-old girl, Patricia Dimaunahan, on the arm.
" We are looking into three angles — politics, personal grudge or the New People’s Army," Saligao said.
Police found five empty 9-mm shells and seven empty M-16 shells at the scene.
The attack happened exactly a year after Sta. Rosa Mayor Leon Arcillas was shot dead by three suspected communist guerrillas shortly after he had officiated a mass wedding at the town hall.
Arcillas died from multiple gunshot wounds. One of his bodyguards, PO2 Ariel Rivera, was also killed.
Catindig, being the vice mayor, succeeded Arcillas. — With Ed Amoroso