Widow’s tale: Ex-mayor in slay plot vs Ynareses

JUN YNARES

A murder complaint was filed Thursday against former Antipolo City Mayor Nilo Leyble and seven others by the widow of a man who was shot dead last month after he allegedly backed out of a plot to kill Leyble’s political enemies.

The alleged targets of the assassination plot were incumbent Mayor Jun Ynares and his father, former Rizal Provincial Gov. Casimiro “Ito” Ynares, according to the complaint.

Dorina Laroco, 32, said her husband Rolando was “shot 14 times” by four men in an ambush on Buliran Road, Barangay San Isidro, on Aug. 26.

Hours before Rolando went to Antipolo and got killed that day, Laroco said, she heard him telling someone on his cell phone: “I’m not Batman who could have both father and son killed at once. If you want, I’ll just give your money back, but only half of it. The money you gave me is not even enough to make up for the trouble you’re getting me into.”

The widow accused Leyble, Vice Mayor Puto Leyva and former Barangay San Luis Chair Andrei Zapanta of being behind the death of Rolando, who she said had just withdrawn himself from the plot devised by Leyble and financed by Leyva and Zapanta.

Also named respondents in the complaint were Alfredo Garcia, a former treasurer of Barangay San Luis; Danilo Aquino; Ricky Reyes; a certain “Jan-Jan” whose motorcycle helmet was found in the crime scene, and Jan-Jan’s reported girlfriend Tin-Tin Garcia.

Leyble, who lost to the younger Ynares in his reelection bid in May, could not be reached for comment. Leyva, meanwhile, dismissed the complaint as politically motivated, stressing that

Former Antipolo City Mayor Nilo Leyble

“my conscience is clear.”

Leyva said the Ynareses had been “harassing” him since he took over as vice mayor, especially after he refused to sign the proposed P1.6-billion city budget for 2013. The budget was later approved by Ynares’ allies who make up the majority in the city council, he said.

Laroco claimed that she learned about the alleged plot against the Ynareses through her husband, who kept her updated on “the project.”

She said she also picked up from Rolando’s conversations with Alfredo Garcia that “the project was about killing the father and his son—Governor Ito and Mayor Jun Ynares.”

“According to their plan, Mayor Jun Ynares should be killed first. This was the former mayor’s instruction to Garcia (Ito ang bilin ng dating mayor kay Garcia),” so that the vice mayor could take over the city government, she added.

“I have decided to speak now to seek justice for my husband, who was shot 14 times, and to go after the people who I know had something to do with his death,” the widow said in Filipino in a complaint filed in the City Prosecutor’s Office.

Laroco claimed that her husband’s “group” had tried to kill the younger Ynares at least four times, and that they were being paid P600,000—with half of it already given to Rolando for his “operational budget”—to kill both father and son.

Former Rizal Provincial Gov. Casimiro “Ito” Ynares

In an Inquirer interview, Mayor Ynares said he also came to know about the alleged plot from Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada.

Laroco, he said, is a resident of Pandacan, Manila, who first told a local councilor about it during her husband’s wake.

The councilor then shared it with Vice Mayor Francisco “Isko Moreno” Domagoso, who later relayed it to Estrada, Ynares said.