Anti-PDAF petitioner shot dead in Aurora

MANILA, Philippines - One of the petitioners against the pork barrel fund who also chaired a movement against political dynasties was shot dead yesterday afternoon in his resort in Dingalan, Aurora.

Realtor Quintin “Ting” Babila Paredes San Diego, 74, founding chairman of the Movement Against Dynasty (MAD), was shot four times in the head with a 9mm pistol. He died at the scene. The two suspects fled on a motorcycle.

San Diego had just met with his workers and was walking back to his cottage at the Maligaya Resort in Barangay Caragsacan when he was attacked at 3:30 p.m.

Sr. Insp. Roderick Daguno, Dingalan police chief, told The STAR that the resort is in a remote area and they had to call the municipal health officer to check on San Diego’s condition. Probers drove two hours from Cabanatuan City in Nueva Ecija to reach the resort.

San Diego was the lead convenor of the August 26 People’s Coalition, which sprung from the Million People’s March to Rizal Park on Aug. 26, 2013 against the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF) or congressional pork barrel.

MAD was one of the petitioners in the case brought before the Supreme Court against PDAF. On Nov. 19, 2013, the SC declared the PDAF unconstitutional.

San Diego was the son of the late Lourdes Babila Paredes, the first female justice of the Court of Appeals. As a regional trial court judge, Lourdes Paredes had convicted the scions of prominent families who raped actress Maggie de la Riva.

Paredes was the daughter of the late Senate president Quintin Paredes, a native of Abra.

San Diego was proud of a vast farm where he planted a million trees in Bongabon, Nueva Ecija. He was a president of the Capitol Jaycees in Quezon City.