Armed men harass Sorsogon solon

LEGAZPI CITY — In what the police consider as the first election-related violence in Bicol, seven Armalite-wielding men claiming to be communist rebels shot the driver of Sorsogon Rep. Jose Solis the other day, seriously wounding him, and then carted away three firearms.

"Since it is an incident involving a politician and a candidate in the May elections, we can initially consider it as the first election-related incident," said Chief Superintendent Jaime Lasar, Bicol police director.

Lasar has ordered the incident probed to find out if the armed men were really New People’s Army guerrillas, as they claimed to be.

Solis, who is seeking re-election in Sorsogon’s second district under the Lakas-CMD (Christian-Muslim Democrats), said one of the armed men shot his driver-aide Gary Guyala in the right leg.

Solis, a former Army colonel, was attending the ground-breaking of one of his projects in Barangay Union, a remote village in Gubat town, when the seven fatigue-wearing men brandishing baby Armalites, appeared and told everyone to drop to the ground.

Solis ignored the call, and identified himself as the one they were looking for. "What’s the problem?" he asked them.

The lawmaker quoted one of the armed men as saying, "Hindi ninyo iginagalang ang batas ng rebolusyonaryo. Wala kayong permisong pumasok dito (You do not respect the revolutionary law. You don’t have any permit to enter this place)."

Solis said they shot Guyala after they saw a pistol in his vest. The armed men left after taking two 9-mm pistols, an Ingram and two cellular phones from the solon’s car.

Solis doubted if the seven men were, indeed, guerrillas because they were armed with baby Armalites. "I was in the military for quite sometime and I did not see a rebel group carrying this kind of firearm. This makes me doubt if they are really rebels," he said.

But if the armed men’s claim is true, Solis said, "I’m calling on them to openly own up to what they did to us."

During the 2001 polls, he said rebels sent him a "campaign permit" but he refused to pay for it. "I did not pay them because they said it was free anyway," he said.

Solis said he was carefully analyzing what happened so as not to unduly accuse innocent groups.