Enrile grand nephew dead in accidental shooting

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya—The worsening peace-and-order situation in the locality, as well as the foreseen spate of violence in the run-up to the May 2013 elections, led a 23-year-old candidate for councilor in Santa Ana town in Cagayan to collect handguns, one of which ended his own life on Friday.

Jean Marie “Boh” Ponce shot himself on Friday morning as he was preparing his caliber 40 handgun before leaving the house for an early meeting, said his father, Jose Mari Ponce, administrator of the Cagayan Economic Zone Authority (Ceza).

“He had been tipped off that elections in Santa Ana would be violent. He did not like guns, but he was a bit scared,” Ponce said in a phone interview.

The young Ponce was found dead at the living area on the second floor of a commercial building in front of the family-owned gasoline station in Barangay (village) Santa Cruz in downtown Santa Ana.

Initial police investigation showed that Boh, an expectant father to a second child, died of accidental shooting. He supposedly unloaded the bullets from his firearm and slid the gun into its holster, unaware that it was still loaded.

The gun may have gone off, firing off a bullet that hit Ponce in the right temple, said a report from Chief Inspector Francisco Villafor of the police’s crime laboratory in Cagayan Valley.

The National Bureau of Investigation, which is conducting a parallel investigation, also backed the police findings that Boh shot himself by accident.

“Our findings showed that there was no forced entry [on the building]. And definitely, that was not suicide,” said lawyer Hector Eduard Geologo, acting NBI regional director for Cagayan Valley.

Boh was running under the United Nationalist Alliance ticket of his elder brother, Board Member Jean Alphonse “AJ” Ponce, the mayoral candidate.

The Ponces are distant relatives of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, a native of Gonzaga town in Cagayan.

According to Jose Mari, his son, Boh, was tipped off by supporters that hired killers had been let loose in many parts of Cagayan, supposedly in time for the coming elections.

“All he wanted was to help his townmates, and that was why he decided on his own to run for public office. Sadly, this is the price of politics,” he said.

The Ceza chief, however, was quick to point out that the family was accepting the result of the investigation, which ruled out foul play in his son’s death.

Election officials in Cagayan earlier expressed concern over the heightened tension among political candidates, especially in Santa Ana where Jose Mari’s son, AJ, is running against Mayor Darwin Tobias, a known critic of the Enriles.

They cited the October 31 incident in Santa Ana which saw Enrile rushing to the Commission on Elections office there to confront the poll registrar who had allegedly refused to register AJ’s supporters who came late to the Comelec office.