Frustrated murder raps poised vs vice mayor, 4 others

The Department of Justice (DOJ) recommended the filing of frustrated murder charges against the vice mayor of Sta. Rosa, Laguna and four others in connection with the attempt to kill the town’s mayor last May.

In a five-page resolution dated Aug. 9, senior state prosecutor Leo Dacera III recommended the filing of the charges against Vice Mayor Arlene Arcillas-Nazareno, Arnel Gomez, Nelly Gomez, Angel Perez, and Cynthia Gomez.

Dacera said there were "evident premeditation" since the respondents "(had) conceived the plan to kill" Mayor Jose Catindig Jr.

In his complaint, Catindig recalled that at about 9:20 p.m. last May 10, he was on board his Isuzu Crosswind, together with his three police bodyguards — PO3 Rommel Ordaniel, PO3 Ricky Moreno, and PO2 Erick Baldos — and nephew Gualberto Catindig, his driver, when two motorcycle-riding men fired at them while they were cruising Malitlit Road.

The mayor was on his way to Barangay Dita in Sta. Rosa to attend a "Battle of the Bands."

Catindig said Moreno pulled him to the vehicle’s floor while his nephew sped off. They alighted upon reaching the barangay hall in Malitlit.

He said he could have been killed in the attack had his bodyguards not hung a bullet-proof vest on the right rear glass window which a bullet hit. The mayor’s vehicle bore two bullet holes.

Police found at least 12 shells at the crime scene believed to have come from a caliber 5.56 mm rifle type and a caliber 9 mm.

Prior to the attack, Catindig said he had received death threats through text messages.

He said he learned from Joselita Ancot and SPO2 Rodolfo Grutass that Nazareno and the four other respondents were the ones who plotted and financed the attempt on his life.

Ancot presented a mobile phone recording of the respondents allegedly discussing the plan to kill Catindig and the P1 million to be paid the gunmen.

Nazareno, however, denied the allegations, arguing that Catindig’s allegations were based on hearsay.

Being a politician, Nazareno said she speaks to numerous people on a daily basis and that if it were true that she spoke with Ancot on the phone regarding the P1-million fee, the conversation referred to the reward granted by the city council for information on the killers of her father.

But Dacera said Nazareno’s claim on the P1-million supposed reward "is a matter of defense which should be ventilated in a full-blown trial."