Cagayan vice mayor accused of slay try on lawyer

MANILA, Philippines - A lawyer is accusing a Cagayan town vice mayor of allegedly ordering one of his bodyguards to hurl a grenade at him in Quezon City last year.

Lawyer Manuel Molina filed last Monday frustrated murder charges before the Quezon City Prosecutor’s Office against Vice Mayor Licerio Antiporda III of Buguey, Cagayan.

Molina said Antiporda had a “strong motive,” citing the criminal charges he handled for complainants against the vice mayor.

Aside from Antiporda, also charged with frustrated murder were his bodyguards, Jopher Castillo and Quirino Ayunayon.

Molina said that on Nov. 15, 2009, he had just come from attending a service at the Kamuning First United Methodist Church when a hand grenade was thrown at him as he was about to board his car.

Molina said he ran away but his right leg was caught in a wedge. He fell down and fractured his leg.

In the charge sheet, Superintendent Lino Banaag, head of the Quezon City Police District-Criminal Investigation and Detection Unit, cited a case against Antiporda wherein Molina acted as lawyer for the prosecution.

“In 1995, respondent Licerio Antiporda II was accused of triple murder for the death of his family’s political opponents in the elections of May 1995 in Buguey, Cagayan... I was engaged by complainants as private prosecutor in the trial which resulted in the conviction of respondent Antiporda for triple homicide who, however, in February, 1999 appealed his conviction to the Court of Appeals,” Molina said.

He said he called the attention of then Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr., followed by another letter to Chief Justice Reynato Puno, to press for the case’s early resolution.

Molina said that at one point, he also brought the issue to the media.

“The following week, I received report from Buguey that respondent Antiporda, who has been acting mayor of Buguey, was furious and cursing me for what I had done on his case, for which I was warned that he had come to Manila with some of his selected armed bodyguards,” Molina said.

Chief Inspector Benjamin Elenzano, deputy head of the QCPD-CIDU, said Molina presented two witnesses and their statements were used in the case against Antiporda.