Laguna bet survives ambush

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna – A councilor running for vice mayor of San Pablo City under the Partido ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) survived an ambush by two motorcycle-riding men past midnight yesterday, police said.

Senior Superintendent Felipe Rojas Jr., Laguna police director, said councilor Edgardo Adajar, together with his brother-in-law Rickson Deomano, was cruising the Maharlika Highway on board an Isuzu Crosswind when he was waylaid in Barangay II-E San Inton at about 1 a.m.

Adajar recalled he was nearly asleep as Deomano drove the car when the two men, wearing helmets and jackets, tried to block their path and fired at the rear tires and windows using a caliber .45 pistol.

Adajar said he managed to shoot back at their ambushers who hastily fled. Running on flat tires, his car crashed into an establishment at the corner of M. Leonor street.

Adajar said he could have been killed had he not brought his firearm for protection.

Police found seven empty caliber .45 shells and seven slugs at the ambush scene.

It was the second attempt on the life of Adajar, a dentist by profession. He was first ambushed in the 2004 elections while he was campaigning in a remote barangay.

Police refused to speculate on the motive behind yesterday’s ambush. The National Bureau of Investigation said it was doing a parallel probe.

The PNP condemned the attack and urged the authorities to "vigorously pursue" their investigation until the gunmen and the masterminds are arrested.

"We call on the police officials and authorities in San Pablo, through Mayor Vic Amante and police chief Superintendent Virgilio Tibayan, to vigorously pursue this matter and arrest the perpetrators," said Pabling Casimina, PMP director for political affairs.

Meanwhile, a belated police report said unidentified men fired at the house of a Lakas-CMD mayoralty bet in the newly created province of Dinagat Friday night.

The attack on the house of Loreto mayoral candidate Doandre Bill Ladaga happened a day after one of his supporters was shot.

Police said the attackers fled after sensing that lawmen, who was informed about the incident by no less than Loreto Mayor Dario Pelismino, were approaching.

Last Thursday, Ladaga’s supporter Junie Ablites was shot and wounded while he was on his way to a political meeting on his motorcycle.

The gunman was riding a white Toyota pickup allegedly driven by a certain Ed Longino and owned by a mayoralty candidate.

Police and the Commission on Elections have sent an augmentation force to Loreto, an island town a one-hour motorboat ride from Surigao City. – With Ed Amoroso and Ben Serrano