I was ambushed, says Abra mayor

BANGUED, Abra — The mayor of remote Tineg town believes that stories belying his ambush last Friday morning were meant to "protect" the perpetrators and "divert the attention of concerned offices."

"I vehemently deny the allegations," Mayor Clarence Benwaren said in a handwritten letter to The STAR.

He was referring to claims by elders and officials of Barangay Tapayen, led by chairman Alfredo Zapata, that no such ambush occurred and that the mayor’s bodyguards were the ones who "raided" the village.

Benwaren said he and his 19 companions, among them Sangguniang Kabataan officers and municipal employees, were about to cross a hanging bridge in Tapayen at about 5:30 a.m. when they were fired upon.

"This (is) the truth," he said.

Zapata, according to Benwaren, is a "known supporter" of Tineg Vice Mayor Edwin Crisologo, his (Benwaren’s) arch political enemy.

The mayor also lashed at Abra Gov. Vicente Valera for claiming that he concocted the ambush story to justify his request for more Army soldiers to be deployed in Tineg.

Benwaren said he made the request on the behest of residents who wanted an honest, peaceful and credible elections in their barangays last Monday.