Vizcaya gov waylaid? It’s pure hoax — cops

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya — Text messages claiming that outgoing Gov. Rodolfo Agbayani, who is running for Congress this time, had been ambushed flooded cellular phones of Novo Vizcayanons yesterday.

The text messages, however, turned out to be "pure hoax."

Senior Superintendent Romeo Caddali, provincial police director, belied the reports.

He said he was in a meeting with Agbayani himself and Bayombong Bishop Ramon Villena when the false reports reached him.

As the text messages claimed, Agbayani’s rival, former police general Thompson Lantion, was behind the "ambush."

Lantion, who belongs to the Lakas-CMD (Christian-Muslim Democrats), dismissed the text messages as part of a "last-ditch smear campaign" to discredit him.

"I urge my provincemates to denounce the smear campaign against me. There’s no reason for me to break the law which I had been upholding and enforcing during my more than 36 years in the military and police service," said Lantion, a member of Philippine Military Academy (PMA) Class 1969.

The camps of Agbayani and the third congressional candidate, former OIC governor Ruth Padilla, also denied that the text messages were their handiwork.