P’sinan mayor ‘killed’ in text messages

DAGUPAN CITY — Another mayor has been "killed."

The assailants: unknown trigger-happy texters in this city.

Cellphone messages alleging that this city’s mayor, Benjamin Lim, was killed in an ambush in Tarlac spread like wildfire here from Sunday afternoon to dawn yesterday, causing alarm among the local police and Lim’s staff.

The rumors came at the heels of the recent slaying of Monkayo, Compostela Valley Mayor Joel Brillantes in a Davao City cockpit last Saturday and the killing of Tayug, Pangasinan Mayor Guerrero Zaragoza a week ago.

But what fanned the flames more was that no one, not even the mayor’s close aides, could determine the veracity of the news about Lim’s "death" for almost 16 hours.

Lim himself was nowhere to be found and reporters here could not reach him through his mobile phone. His wife was also reportedly incommunicado.

City administrator Rafael Baraan, on the other hand, was reluctant to call the mayor, saying, "Nakakahiya siyang tawagan pag mga ganun (It is embarrassing to call him in cases like that)."

This led some people to surmise that there was a news blackout on the mayor’s "slay" to prevent panic and fear among residents.

However, when asked for their comments last Sunday, Superintendent Noli Taliño, Dagupan police chief, and Senior Superintendent Mario Sandiego, provincial police director, said the police would consider the reports as a hoax until Lim himself was found dead.

It was only at 7:30 a.m. yesterday that the mayor surfaced on dzSD-Super Radyo Dagupan where he reiterated on air that he is very much alive and that the reports were false.

In a separate interview with The STAR, Lim said it was purely bad coincidence that his cellphone conked out while he and his wife were in Manila when news about his "death" spread.

His wife’s mobile phone, on the other hand, ran out of battery.

"I’m very, very sorry if many people panicked. But I’m very, very much alive," Lim said.

The "incident," however, left one "casualty" — Lim’s mother-in-law, who reportedly suffered a mild stroke at the height of the rumors. — With Cesar Ramirez