Nueva Ecija city councilor hurt in ambush; guard killed

A city councilor of Nueva Ecija province was shot and wounded while one of his security aides was killed in an early Wednesday morning ambush in Gapan City. Senior Superintendent Arnel Santiago, city police director, said the suspects sped onboard a car towards Pambuan village in Gapan after firing at the party of councilor Elpidio Rueda at 6 a.m. "The councilor sustained cuts and injuries on the arms, and wounds from shrapnel in the face," Santiago said in Filipino during an interview on dzRH radio. He said the shrapnel likely came from metal parts of the vehicle Rueda was riding. The attackers wielded M-16 rifles. It was the latest in a series of violent incidents involving political figures, highlighted by last weekend's murder of Abra Rep. Luis Bersamin Jr near a church in Quezon City. Santiago said one Gilbert Mananggit, a security aide of Rueda, was killed after being shot in different parts of the body. Another aide who covered Rueda was shot but survived. Rueda and the aide were taken to a nearby hospital. Santiago refused to disclose the name of the hospital for security reasons. The police have set up checkpoints to block the assailants' escape routes. When asked if politics was a factor in the ambush, Santiago said, "We're still investigating if politics was involved." Santiago added Rueda planned to run for reelection as councilor in the May 2007 elections. Despite the incident, however, the Gapan police chief claimed that the peace-and-order situation in the city remained "okay." Gapan is a fourth-class city, with a population of 89,199 people in 18,200 households.-GMANews.TV