Candidate for Vice Mayor in Cebu escapes ambush

Gov. Hilario Davide III inspects the bullet-riddled vehicle of LP vice mayoral bet Rene Asentista. PHOTO FROM GUNGUN GICA’S FB PAGE

CEBU CITY– A Liberal Party candidate for vice mayor escaped unscathed during an ambush staged by still unidentified persons in Dumanjug town, Cebu about 1:30 p.m. on Friday.

Rene Asentista came from a consultative meeting with his supporters, when the perpetrators fired at and lobbed a grenade at his vehicle in Barangay Masa, about 20 km from the town proper.

Asentista was not hurt but his companions inside his black Mitsubishi Pajero suffered minor bruises when they jumped out of the vehicle, said Sr. Insp. Arvi Arbuis, Dumanjug police chief.

Asentista is running for vice mayor in Dumanjug with Vice Mayor Efren Guntrano “Gungun” Gica as standard bearer.

Gica is running against Dumanjug Mayor Nelson Garcia of One Cebu.

Based on the photos posted by Gica in his FaceBook page, the right door of Asentista’s vehicle was damaged.

The police found a grenade that failed to explode.

Cebu Gov. Hilario Davide III denounced the ambush and ordered the police to conduct an “exhaustive investigation.”

“We shall inform the public once the report is ready and shall do what is right and proper with firm dispatch to bring the perpetrators to answer what they have done,” he said in a statement.

But Garcia suspected that the ambush was staged to “gain sympathy from the people.”

Garcia claimed a policeman, who served as Gica’s bodyguard, staged the ambush. MS