Jueteng whistle-blower shot dead

MANILA, Philippines - Police vowed a thorough probe into the killing of jueteng whistle-blower Wilfredo “Boy” Mayor in Pasay City yesterday.

Metro Manila police commander Director Roberto Rosales has ordered that sketches of the two gunmen be made based on the description of Mayor’s nephew Rommel Mayor, 39, and son-in-law Allan Benedict Castro, 39.

The 54-year-old Boy Mayor was declared dead on arrival at the San Juan de Dios Hospital in Pasay City. He sustained gunshot wounds in different parts of the body.

Riding tandem on a motorcycle, the killers fled toward an unknown direction.

Rosales said police would ask the management of a casino in Manila for a copy of video footage that might have caught the gunmen trailing Mayor and his companions when they were leaving the building.

A video footage camera helped police solve the slaying of a Commission on Elections official years back, he added.

Police recovered empty shells and several slugs from a caliber .45 automatic pistol and an M-16 rifle at the crime scene.

Mayor and Sandra Cam, another whistle-blower, testified during a Senate hearing years ago about the involvement of First Gentleman Miguel Arroyo in jueteng in the Bicol region.

Mayor and Cam were then under the protective custody of Sen. Panfilo Lacson and Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz.

Now retired, Cruz vowed through a radio broadcast in Legazpi City yesterday that he would identify two “big and influential persons” that could be behind the death of Boy Mayor.

Speaking in Filipino over Bombo Radyo Legazpi, Cruz said Boy Mayor told him the names of these two people allegedly behind anomalies in the construction business.

“In fact, he was seeking my help to facilitate his plan to reveal their identities in public before he was killed,” he said.

However, Cruz, Krusada Laban sa Jueteng chairman, said Mayor’s death is not linked to jueteng.

“Based on what he had told me before he died, I am very sure that jueteng has nothing to do with his killing,” he said.

He will reveal the names of people who could be behind Boy Mayor’s killing in due time, Cruz said. - With Cet Dematera, Jose Rodel Clapano and Helen Flores