Vice mayor survives 2nd slay try

The vice mayor of Talisay, Batangas, survived a second attempt on his life Thursday.

Police said Vice Mayor Florencio Manimtim Jr., 52, was shot before noon yesterday outside a mall in Pasay City more than a year after a first attempt on his life.

Manimtim, according to Pasay police chief Supt. Melchor Reyes, suffered three gunshot wounds after he was shot in the back by one of two suspects.

The victim was rushed to the San Juan de Dios Hospital where authorities said he is now in stable condition.

On Aug. 7 last year, one of Manimtim’s bodyguards, Guillermo Macaraig, 57, was killed when unidentified gunmen attacked the vice mayor as he was attending his father’s burial at the Talisay Municipal Cemetery.

The Aug. 7 attack was timed to coincide with a 21-gun salute for Manimtim’s father, a retired Air Force officer.

Manimtim is facing an electoral protest from rival Gerry Natanauan who lost to him by a mere three votes. Police, however, said it’s too early to establish a motive for yesterday’s attack.

Leonito Dacera, security chief at San Juan de Dios, said he heard a wheezing sound as Manimtim tried to breathe as he was being wheeled into the emergency room indicating the vice mayor had difficulty breathing.

Several supporters of the vice mayor from Talisay went to the hospital past noon to donate blood after Mayor Zenaida Mendoza, an ally of Manimtim, went public with an appeal for blood donations.

Mendoza said she wasn’t sure if yesterday’s attack was “still about politics, but what happened to him last year had something to do with politics.” She declined to elaborate.

Senior Supt. Rosauro Acio, Batangas police chief, said after the first attempt on his life, the Batangas police provided four security escorts for Manimtim.

According to Supt. Reyes, Manimtim was waiting for his car to pick him up at the SM Mall of Asia when the motorcycle-riding suspects came. The man who shot Manimtim was armed with a .45 cal. pistol, said Reyes. But he said the attack didn’t appear to be a “professional hit.” Jeannette I. Andrade and Karen Boncocan in Manila, and Jerome Balinton, Inquirer Southern Luzon