Politics, gambling eyed in Marikina pol’s slay

MANILA, Philippines - The ambush on former Marikina City councilor Elmer Nepomuceno in Cainta, Rizal last Saturday may be due to politics or illegal gambling, an official said yesterday.

“The victim’s family is cooperating fully in our investigation of the case. They gave several names and motives in Nepomuceno’s killing which we are now in the process of verifying and validating,” Senior Superintendent Rolando Anduyan, Rizal provincial police director, said in an interview.

Anduyan ruled out robbery as the motive behind Nepomuceno’s killing as his attackers left immediately after shooting him.

He added that they are also checking other possible motives for Nepomuceno’s murder.

It’s complicated

Anduyan said that based on their initial background investigation, Nepomuceno’s life was a very “complicated” one.

After he lost his re-election bid last May, Nepomuceno filed graft charges against Marikina City Mayor Del de Guzman and 14 others in connection with a P22-million Christmas bazaar last year that reportedly turned out to be disadvantageous to the city government.

Sources told The STAR that Nepomuceno had lined up seven more graft cases against De Guzman.

Police investigators gathered that Nepomuceno was reportedly involved in small town lottery in Mindanao, was a lotteng operator in Bicol and a jueteng administrator in southern Metro Manila. Both lotteng and jueteng are illegal numbers games.

The attack last Saturday was the third attempt on Nepomuceno’s life. Years ago, armed men tried to kill the politician in front of his house in Barangay Sto. Niño and at the Midtown Subdivision, both in Marikina.

Nepomuceno, his driver Elmer Lituania and companion Jayson Villon had come from the Texas cockpit arena in Antipolo City and were on their way home to Marikina in a Hyundai Getz, Cainta police chief Superintendent Carlito Briones said.

When a traffic enforcer flagged them down in Cainta, two men on a motorcycle parked alongside them and shot Nepomuceno six times, he said. Slugs from a 9mm pistol were found at the scene.

Anduyan said two men riding a motorcycle without a license plate were accosted by the Marikina police minutes after the attack. One of them carried a 9mm pistol, he added.

Investigators have yet to confirm if the handgun was used in the attack on Nepomuceno.