CEBU CITY – The mayor of San Fernando town, southern Cebu believes that politics was the motive behind the ambush that left her wounded and her husband and two others killed.
Mayor Lakambini Reluya has been receiving threats before last Tuesday’s ambush, said Chief Supt. Debold Sinas, chief of the Police Regional Office-Central Visayas (PRO 7).
“I visited her in the hospital and she said that politics is behind the attack. According to her, there had been threats in their lives,” said Sinas in a press conference Wednesday.
While the mayor survived the attack, her husband, Ricardo Reluya Jr., a barangay captain, the town’s tourism officer Ricky Monterona, and driver Ricky Monterona were killed.
The mayor’s security aides Tolentin Jeper and Giovanni Perez also survived.
The mayor is already out of danger.
“We believed that the target was the mayor. Luckily, when bursts of gunfire broke out, she was hugged by her husband to shelter her from bullets,” said Sinas.
The mayor sustained a bullet wound in the right arm and was wounded by shrapnel in the back.
The ambush happened shortly before 6 p.m. in Barangay Linao, Talisay City. The victims were aboard a white van when it was blocked by a white Toyota Innova.
Armed men then got off the Innova and peppered the van with bullets using M16 rifles, police said.
At least 73 empty shells were recovered in the crime scene. (Calvin Cordova)
