Philippine mayor Leon Arcillas, 61, and police bodyguard Erwin Rivera, fatally shot inside City Hall
Hoodoo
May 11, 2005
Inquirer News Service
http://news.inq7.net/nation/index.php?index=1&story_id=36613
Editor's Note: Published on page A1 of the May 11, 2005 issue of
the Philippine Daily Inquirer
STA. ROSA CITY, Laguna, Philippines -- After surviving an ambush
two years ago, Sta. Rosa Mayor Leon Arcillas yesterday fell prey
to the savagery of assassins.
Arcillas, 61, and a police bodyguard were fatally shot Tuesday
morning inside City Hall in a daring attack that the Philippine
National Police quickly blamed on communist gunmen.
PNP Director General Arturo Lomibao lost no time in creating a
task force to investigate the mayor's murder and later relieved
Superintendent Joselito Vera Cruz as Sta. Rosa police chief.
Lomibao appointed Superintendent Pastor de Guzman to take over
Vera Cruz's post.
Investigators said the attack took place near the second floor
stairway of the City Hall annex around 10:30 a.m. after Arcillas
finished officiating the weddings of 15 couples.
Arcillas, who was on his third and last term as mayor, had been
regularly officiating weddings on Tuesdays and Thursdays since he
assumed office in 1998.
One of the assailants, whom investigators and witnesses described
as a woman, shook hands with Arcillas, drew out a .45-cal.
automatic, and shot the mayor in the head and abdomen.
The mayor was rushed to the University of Perpetual Help Hospital
in Biñan, Laguna, where he succumbed shortly after noon to at
least three gunshot wounds in the head.
Other gunmen opened fire on police officer-2 Erwin Rivera and PO3
Nonoy Almendras, both security aides of the mayor. Rivera died on
the spot. Almendras was wounded, but doctors at the University of
Perpetual Help Hospital said he was in stable condition.
Witnesses said the assailants fled on foot. Officials said one of
the mayor's six bodyguards managed to fire back at the
assailants, but they quickly blended in with the crowd and
escaped. Police said the building was packed with about a hundred
people during the killing.
Skull severely damaged
Dr. Elvis Bedia, the attending physician, said the mayor's skull
was severely damaged.
"He was practically dead on arrival but we still tried to revive
him. We eventually lost him at around 12:05 p.m. The damage to
his brain was just enormous," Bedia told the Inquirer.
Chief Superintendent Marcelino Franco, head of the PNP Special
Action Force, said Arcillas had sought police protection after
receiving death threats from communist New People's Army rebels.
The mayor reportedly incurred the ire of militant organizations
after he was tagged as the mastermind in last year's killing of
urban poor leader Melita Trinidad Carvajal.
The Inquirer tried to get the reaction of Communist Party of the
Philippines spokesperson Gregorio "Ka Roger" Rosal, but his cell
phone just kept on ringing.
'Well-planned'
Lomibao said the killing appeared to be "well-planned."
Investigators also said they found a brand-new girdle with a
price tag inside the women's toilet of the City Hall annex and a
padding for the girdle inside the men's toilet. They said the
assailants may have used the girdles to hide their guns.
They said the guns may have been smuggled into the building
earlier and hidden in the ceilings of the toilets.
Woman among gunmen
It was unclear how many were involved in the attack. Arcillas'
secretary, Sony Cerdena, quoted witnesses as saying there were at
least three assailants, including a woman.
An investigator of the Sta. Rosa police, however, said there were
four gunmen.
Lomibao visited the murder scene later in the afternoon and
presented the artist's sketches of two of the assailants.
He also appointed Senior Superintendent Federico Terte, the
Laguna police chief, as head of Task Force Arcillas.
Investigators said they were looking into the possibility that
Tuesday's killing may have had something to do with the ambush of
Arcillas nearly two years ago.
First ambush
At that time, Arcillas was in his vehicle after attending a
meeting of the homeowners' association of the Amihan Subdivision
in Barangay Tagapo when a motorcycle-riding gunman shot him. He
sustained a gunshot wound in his thigh.
The gunman was never arrested, but a land dispute was reportedly
behind the ambush.
Task Force Arcillas is providing close-in security to the mayor's
widow and four children, one of whom is a city councilor and
another the chair of the SK Federation in Laguna.
--
It's a big old goofy world. - John Prine
sandy26
they disagree with.
DGH
This is the only time in the history of alt.obituaries where the name
"Arcillas" has appeared.
Juan
they disagree with. >>
With the number of courtroom shootings, and murders of attorneys and
prosecutors in the USA lately, I'd say that they problem isn't confined
to the Philippines.
Besides ... it's newsworthy mostly because it is unusual, even in the
Philippines.
Hoodoo
I flashed on an image of Huey Long when I originally read the
article.