Contractor got balls, ordered mayor killed

By Mortz C.Ortigoza

Compared to his counterpart in other provinces, an aggrieved contractor in Nueva Ecija got balls.

Three arrested murder suspects’ incriminated young contractor Christian Saquilabon to be the mastermind in the broad daylight ambushed that killed General Tinio, Nueva Ecija mayor Ferdinand Bote.

Both Saguilabo and the late mayor were into contracting business with government projects.

Diagram and Links on the grisly murder of a mayor.

One of the reasons the mayor was timed by the assassins, his itinerary was patterned when he went to the office of the National Irrigation Administration.

As based on my seasoned experience in the media, every time we go to the office of the NIA, those persons who brought there their more than million pesos’ Sports Utility Vehicle or SUV like what the mayor to his Toyota Fortuner we assumed as contractors looking for probable lucrative projects with either the provincial or regional irrigation’s boss.

Saquilabon and Bote had conflict on the implementation of the P96-million project to moreover develop the Minalungao Convergence Park Zone — a popular tourist destination in Nueva Ecija located in General Tinio.

News reports said the mayor was harassing the young contractor.

Probably the late mayor Bote used his position by not issuing a business permit or ordered his budget office not to pay what the local government office owed the builder, as what the media speculated.

As far as I know contractors in Pangasinan remained silent, absorbed the pain, and roll with punches, even when the mayor who replaced their patron at the city or town hall would not pay them the countless millions of pesos the LGU owed  but instead charged them with criminal cases at the Ombudsman for conspiracy with his (mayor) predecessor in a substandard project that put in the disadvantaged the government.

I know many contractors as a result of this malpractice lose one’s shirt.

I know too that many mayors in and out of my province used dummy construction companies too to corner big government projects in their jurisdiction.
 But contractors in Pangasinan are not like Saquilabon.

*** 

But there was a setback.

Saguilabon was a lousy murder planner. One of his co-principals was seen on a security camera driving the beige-colored Toyota Avanza with the original plate number still attached to the vehicle that entered the compound of the Iglesia ni Cristo's church.

Because of that fiasco the driver unmasked his two accomplices in the car.

Consequently, Florencio Suarez and Roberto Gumatay were arrested riding in the same vehicle at Andaya Highway in Camarines Sur.

Seized from the duo were .45 caliber pistols, a Colt and an Amrscor Hi-Cap, which police said was used in Bote’s murder.

 The cops probably sweet talked, threatened, or arm twisted Suarez and Gumatay where they squealed Saquilabon and the other three John Does as the other principals by cooperation.

Murder, just like narc selling despite the amount, is a non-bailable capital offense. It means those arrested will "maghihimas ng matigas na rehas na aabot ng seven to ten years habang dinidinig ang kaso nila". If convicted they will be serving the  slammer for more than 20 years we called, son of a gun a misnomer, life sentence. 
Of course the seven or more years they spent at the detention cell of the Bureau of Jail, Management & Penology as the Regional Trial Court's hear their case will be deducted from the sentenced.

***

For the lighter side:

If General Tinio town in Nueva Ecija is gripped with fear because of the murder of their mayor, 

The women in Kanto Tinio in San Pablo City, Laguna are shrouded with fear because of the practice of the drivers of the public utility jeeps there:

Here’s the poser:

Bakit natatakot ang mga babae na bumaba sa Kanto Tinio Street sa San Pablo Laguna?

 Answer: Kasi tuwing bababa ang mga girls the drivers would shout: Oh iyong bababa Kanto Tinio na!

Sanamagan, the police hierarchy should look pronto why the women there feared to disembark from the jeep in Kanto Tinio. Baka madaming holduppers, kaya mga sirs pakitingnan na lang po.



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CHA-CHA: One - House, One - Senate are Unwieldy, Duplicitous – JDV

(You can read my selected columns at mortzortigoza.blogspot.com and articles at Pangasinan News Aro. You can send comments too at totomortz@yahoo.com)