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Thursday, April 05, 2007
Ex-aide links mayor to Army colonel's slay
By Dante M. Fabian
ANGELES CITY -- An ex-aide of Mexico Mayor Teddy Tumang said the mayor offered him P1 million to kill an Army colonel and a former local chief executive of the town.
Mario Ramin revealed in sworn statements made before lawyer Noel C. Flores and the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) that Tumang allegedly asked him to kill Philippine Army Colonel Wilfredo Munar and former Mexico mayor Ernesto Punzalan.
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Mayor Tumang denied the charges.
The revelation of Ramin, allegedly one of Tumang's trusted aides and an employee of the municipal government of Mexico, brings a new twist to the investigation on the killing of Munar near his house last February 7.
Ramin, a resident of Sitio Licu in Barangay Parian, said in his affidavit that he did "dirty jobs" for Tumang for several years.
He added that he decided to distance himself from the mayor when Tumang offered him P1 million to kill Munar and Punzalan.
The offer was allegedly made in a conversation with Tumang at the municipal hall, which was then undergoing repair, in the second week of January.
"That during the second week of January 2007, in the presence of Elmer Lising and Willy Tumang, I was offered P1 million by Mayor Tumang in exchange for assassinating former mayor Ernesto Punzalan and retired Colonel Wilfredo Munar, a known critic of Mayor Teddy Tumang who was gunned down on February 7, 2007," Ramin said in his affidavit.
He said Willie Tumang is a nephew of the mayor and works for him as a driver and security man while Lising works as a personal bodyguard of Tumang.
He added that Tumang allegedly tried to persuade him into accepting the offer by reportedly saying "that even if I worked for five years in my present employment I would not be able to earn money he was offering me in exchange for the task he wanted."
When Navarro asked him what his response was when Tumang made the offer, Ramin said "Tumawa lang po ako (I just laughed)."
Ramin said that after declining the offer, he gradually withdrew from his close association with Tumang.
He said he also informed Punzalan that Tumang wanted the former mayor killed.
Ramin added that Punzalan at first had doubted his story and was only convinced after he executed sworn statements concerning Tumang's offer. (Sun.Star Pampanga/Sunnex)
For more Philippine news, visit Sun.Star Iloilo. (April 5, 2007 issue)
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