2 ex-Laguna execs face raps over mayor’s slay

TOWN MOURNS In this photo taken in December last year, residents of Los Baños town in Laguna province are welcomed to the family home of slain Mayor Caesar Perez so they can pay their last respects to the official. —CLIFFORD NUÑEZ

Two former officials of Los Baños town in Laguna province are facing a murder complaint in relation to the killing of Mayor Caesar Perez in December last year.

Prosecutor Clarence Gaite of Calamba City has set the preliminary investigation on May 6 to determine whether there is probable cause to charge former Councilor Norvin Tamisin and civil registrar Glenn Arieta.

Arieta has since resigned from the local government, where he also used to head the Information and Communication System Office that oversaw the public security camera system of the town.

But Tamisin, in an earlier online interview, said other agencies like the police’s Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the National Bureau of Investigation had “found nothing” on him.

He denied any involvement in the killing, saying he had no idea how supposed eyewitnesses had placed him on the crime scene.

In a separate interview, Perez’s youngest son, Aldous, 35, said he stood as the complainant in the case that was prepared by the Laguna police’s task group on Perez’s killing.

Perez was shot and killed at the municipal hall compound on the night of Dec. 3, 2020.

Authorities earlier said they recovered footage from security cameras that likely showed where the gunman was positioned.

Police probe

Aldous declined to discuss in detail the results of the police investigation to avoid affecting the case, but said it showed that Tamisin and Arieta “played a part” in the assassination.

In 2019, Tamisin ran but lost to the elder Perez, who was a longtime mayor of Los Baños and who also served as vice governor of Laguna.

“It’s obviously politically motivated,” Aldous said.

He denied that his father was involved in the illegal drug trade even as Perez’s name was included in the national government’s list of suspected narcopoliticians, or local government officials with alleged links to the illegal drug trade.

“But I believe there’s someone bigger and moneyed behind all these,” Aldous said.

The Laguna police filed the murder complaint on Jan. 28 but the process was delayed due to pandemic restrictions.

Aldous said he would have wanted to wait for the NBI’s findings, “but I realized that I somehow owed it to the people to let them know what’s going on with the case.”