Cagayan lawmaker eyes politics in father's slay try

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – Cagayan third district Rep. Randolph Ting yesterday said the attempt on the life of his father, Tuguegarao City Mayor Delfin Ting, last Monday was politically motivated.

The elder Ting is now recuperating in a Manila hospital from a bullet wound in the face. He underwent surgery yesterday to remove the slug, suspected to have come from a caliber .22 pistol.

“No one is to be blamed here but politics. This is all politics. We don’t believe that there are other motives behind the attack,” said Rep. Ting, himself a three-term mayor of Tuguegarao City, the capital of Cagayan.

“Thanks God that my father was still lucky enough to survive. (God) must have plans for him for the continued progress of Tuguegarao,” he added. 

The elder Ting, 72, who won his second term as mayor last May, was shot in front of the family-owned Hotel Delfino along Bonifacio street in the city’s downtown area at around 6:15 a.m. Monday. 

Senior Superintendent Mao Aplasca, Cagayan police director, said the mayor sustained wounds in the right cheek and nose bridge from a single bullet.

Ting’s family opted to airlift him to a Manila hospital for an operation to remove the slug embedded in his cheek after getting treatment at the Catholic Church-run St. Paul Hospital in Tuguegarao.

“The motive is obvious. Everybody knows who our enemies are. They have been trying to get us even during the elections. Our supporters have also been harassed before,” Rep. Ting said.

The lawmaker said that a few days before the attack, they received a death threat for his father through a Facebook account, aside from earlier threats through text messages and letters from unknown sources.

Besides politics though, Chief Superintendent Francisco Villaroman, Cagayan Valley police director, said another possible motive could be personal grudge or that the attack might have been perpetrated by criminals whom the mayor had gotten entangled with in his campaign against illegal drugs.

“We already have an idea who (the masterminds are) but we cannot yet identify them to the media. The motives could be political and personal grudge,” he said.– With Raymund Catindig