Batangas mayor survives slay try

CAMP MIGUEL MALVAR, Batangas — The mayor of Taal, Batangas survived an assassination attempt inside a cockpit in his town early yesterday morning, police said. His assailant was gunned down.

Mayor Librado Cabrera, 54, was shot once in the back. He is now recuperating at the Lemery General Hospital.

Cabrera’s attacker, Felipe Villamin, a special Customs agent and husband of Taal councilor Aida Villamin, was shot six times by Herman Pesigan, 56, a security aide of the mayor.

Pesigan himself sustained three gunshot wounds in the abdomen. He is in critical condition at the Lemery General Hospital.

Police said Cabrera was placing bets at the Taal Riverside Cockpit Arena at about 2:30 a.m. when Villamin suddenly pulled out his caliber .45 pistol and shot the mayor, hitting him in the back.

Pesigan hastily embraced the mayor, taking three bullets from Villamin’s gun. Although bloodied, he managed to shoot back at Villamin.

Sources quoted Villamin as saying that he would shoot the mayor to stop his winning streak in the cockfight derby.

Police, however, said the incident could be politically motivated, saying that Villamin and his councilor-wife, a former Cabrera supporter, were allied with the mayor’s political rival in the 2001 mayoralty race.