Slay plot vs mayor bared

SUBIC, Zambales—Police arrested an Olongapo City resident last week for allegedly plotting to kill Subic Mayor Jefferson Khonghun.

Senior Supt. Jelson Dayupay, Subic police chief, said Gregorio Gutierrez, 81, was arrested after he handed a gun to Rommel Ave, 33, the man he hired for the job, during a police entrapment operation on Aug. 24.

Dayupay said Ave told police that the plan to kill Khonghun was hatched because the mayor was “giving [Gutierrez’s group] a hard time.”

He said the plot involved a P100,000 contract. Citing Ave’s account, he said Gutierrez was to provide Ave with a gun, and would pay him once the mayor is dead.

Police also said they had recovered a mobile telephone containing messages to Ranildo Maningding, the owner of Aim High Philippines Logistics Inc., a transport company, which is now under investigation.

Gutierrez was using a vehicle registered to that firm.

Khonghun filed attempted murder complaints against Gutierrez and Maningding in the prosecutor’s office in Olongapo City on Aug. 26. Assistant provincial prosecutor Joy Bayona found probable cause to charge Gutierrez and Maningding with attempted murder.

Khonghun said the only motive he could think of to warrant the assassination plot was the local government’s drive against smuggling.

“We caught Maningding’s trucks—four initially, then 12 after that—smuggling steel fabricated inside [the] Hanjin shipyard [at] the Subic Bay Freeport,” Khonghun said. “We held his trucks and turned them over to the [Bureau of Customs].”

Khonghun said Maningding came to his office to discuss the incident, “but I told him we are not after him because he’s just the trucking service.”

Speaking to the Inquirer, Ave said he was introduced to Gutierrez by a man named Bert. Robert Gonzaga, Inquirer Central Luzon