2 employes shot in
Rodriguez town hall

TENSION gripped the Rodriguez, Rizal town hall Monday morning when two municipal employes were allegedly shot while a public hearing on the Montalban sanitary landfill was ongoing.

Suspended mayor Pedro Cuerpo claimed the shooter was a former policeman now serving as bodyguard of acting mayor Jonas Cruz. He said he and his supporters were blocked, allegedly on Cruz's orders, from entering the town hall to attend a hearing called by the town council.

It was not immediately clear if the victims - Noli Santos and Delia San Jose - were Cuerpo's supporters, were the actual targets, and what the motive for the shooting was. Santos, 36, was hit in the chest while San Jose was wounded in the arm; both were taken to the Rizal Medical Center.

The shooter was initially identified through an ID card recovered at the scene as one Casamor Angumay. He was taken by the police for interrogation. A cal. 45 pistol was found on him.

"Sa kanila galing yung putok, nagpaputok yung bodyguard ng acting mayor. Alangan namang sa amin galing yun eh sila yung may mga baril," Cuerpo said, adding that policemen with high-powered firearms were securing the municipal hall at the time of the incident.

Cuerpo, who is still serving a 60-day suspension ordered by Rizal Gov. Casimiro Ynares III over his insistence on collecting tipping fees from users of the 14-hectare Montalban landfill, said the Sangguniang Bayan invited him to yesterday's public hearing. "I was invited by the SB last Wednesday kaya nagtataka ako kung bakit di ako pinayagang pumasok. May karapatan naman ang SB na malaman ang mga nangyayari dito, lalo na itong sa landfill," Cuerpo said.

Cuerpo in earlier statements accused Ynares of opening a new 19-hectare landfill in Rodriguez after falsely declaring the current one full, with the intention of diverting from his town to the provincial coffers the millions of pesos paid in tipping fees by Metro Manila cities using the landfill.

Cuerpo denied his supporters were planning to mass inside the town hall but Ynares belied this in a radio interview. "Acting mayor Cruz told me that Cuerpo intended to use the town hall facilities to hold a dialogue with his supporters and Cruz did not allow this because Cuerpo remains suspended, and the security of the offices in the town hall may also be compromised," Ynares said in Filipino.

Cuerpo later managed to enter the town hall and remained there until afternoon. He maintained his suspension does not include being barred from the town hall. He also said he was awaiting another suspension order, this time for six months, from the Department of Interior and Local Government but he does not know for what reason he is being suspended anew.