Mining row behind slay, says slain mayor’s wife

DAVAO CITY — The wife of slain Monkayo Mayor Joel Brillantes expressed her belief yesterday that her husband’s killing was connected with the bitter row at Mt. Diwalwal’s gold mining site.

In an interview with The STAR, Nene Brillantes debunked speculations that political rivals or the New People’s Army were behind her husband’s death.

She recalled that her husband sometimes had pre-dawn calls at home and always argued about mining with the caller.

"It has something to do with mining. I could hear him talking to somebody I know on the phone before dawn. I would know if they argue and it was all about mining," she said.

Though she admitted that her husband had been receiving death threats for a long time, Mrs. Brillantes believes that the phone calls can provide police with a strong lead that could reveal the mastermind of the killing.

Brillantes, 49, was gunned down by a lone assassin as he stepped out of the VIP room of the Matina Gallera cockpit here Saturday night.

The gunman, Aniceto Dejeto Sr., was shot dead.

Mrs. Brillantes believes that Dejeto was just a gun-for-hire.

"But as to who hired him, it has to be several layers because he himself was killed in order to silence him. No one among our guards killed him because all their weapons were left inside the vehicle," she said.

Dejeto, a father of seven children, was reportedly fetched by a white Mitsubishi van hours before carrying out Brillantes’ assassination.

Brillantes was known to be extremely security-conscious, but he was not wearing any bullet-proof vest the night he was killed.

"That was why he was hit in the head because people always thought he wore bullet-proof vests," Mrs. Brillantes said.

She said her husband did not normally go to cockpits, and just placed his bets by phone.

Meanwhile, President Arroyo reminded local government executives yesterday to be more vigilant following the killings of Brillantes and Tayug, Pangasinan Mayor Guerrero Zaragoza.— With Marichu Villanueva