‘Jueteng whisleblower’ mayor’s house blasted; troops deployed

By Myds Supnad

BUGALLON, Pangasinan -- Two more V150 armored vehicles and additional army troops were deployed here and other parts of the province to prevent bloodshed following the grenade attack on the house of mayor Rodrigo Orduna due to reported political rivalry.

Major Gen. Gregorio Pio Catapang, Jr., commandeer of the Army’s 7th Infantry Division, whose area of jurisdiction is Region 1 and 3, bared this Thursday saying he ordered this to maintain peace. as elections are drawing near.

General Catapang’s action came  after gunmen hurled Wednesday morning a grenade into the house of Orduna, the whistle blower who accused Gov. Amado Espino of accumulating allegedly hundreds of millions of pesos from the illegal game jueteng.

Orduna’s expose triggered the filing of a plunder case against Espino in what he described as lack of merit and politically motivated to destroy his credibility.

Espino said he also wanted the  Philippine National Police to immediately conduct  a thorough and independent investigation of the grenade blast so the truth will come out.

Espino and Orduna were former political allies but their relationship turned sour, after Orduna allied himself with gubernatorial candidate Hernani Braganza, a political rival of Espino.

On the other hand, Espino’s ally also filed a plunder case against Braganza.

The grenade exploded in front of the door of Orduna’s house, but no one was hurt.

Espino said Pangasinan had been known as a  peaceful province with little  track record of political violence for decades.

With the incident, some mayors and provincial officials of Pangasinan recently circulated a signed manifest seeking the ouster of acting provincial police director Marlou Chan, an intelligence expert, on charges of partisan politics and incompetence at preventing and solving  an  increasing number of unsolved shooting incidents in the province since he was assigned here.

Chan denied  he had  been partisan.

Local LP stalwarts said had deplored the grenade attack a “deplorable act” that police must probe.

No one was hurt in the blast which police said damaged the front door, including the gutter wall, in the house of Orduña in the town proper.

Police said the grenade was lobbed at 1:35 a.m.

Chan,  said they were still investigating the incident and could not comment yet on the possible motive behind it.

Chan said they now have to secure the family of Orduña who is running for vice mayor in the May 13 polls.

The mayor refused to be interviewed on the grenade blast.

Orduña, a self-confessed jueteng operator, hogged the headlines when he filed a plunder case at the Office of Ombudsman against re-electionist Gov. Amado Espino Jr. for allegedly receiving about P900 million in jueteng payola.

Espino has denied the allegations. He and Orduña used to be long-time political allies until the mayor joined LP.

 “We are asking the authorities to investigate this deplorable act and arrest whoever is behind the attack,” said former vice governor Oscar Lambino, spokesman and vice chairman of the local LP.

Alaminos City Mayor Hernani Braganza, the LP’s gubernatorial candidate, called on the police to beef up security for Orduña and increase police visibility in Bugallon and other election hotspots in the province.

Bugallon is listed as one of the 14 priority areas of concern in the May 13 polls due to intense political rivalry.

“The attack on Mayor Orduña deals a serious blow to efforts to ensure safe and fair elections in Pangasinan. Our law enforcement agencies should conduct more checkpoints and increase police visibility to prevent the outbreak of election violence,” he said.

Espino, for his part, also asked the police to conduct a thorough and independent investigation into the grenade blast.

An independent and non-partisan probe of the grenade blast would be the first decisive step to keep it that way, he said. 

“I don’t want anybody to stage-manage violent acts that make it appear that politics has anything to do with crimes in my province,” he said.