Multimillion public-works contracts eyed in Nueva Ecija mayor slay
CABANATUAN CITY, Nueva Ecija: The Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) have sought the help of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) to connect the dots that might lead to the early solution of the killing of Mayor Ferdinand Bote of Gen. Tinio town in this province .
Police are looking at three angles– construction business, quarrying and politics.
NBI Director Dante Guiran, who visited the wake of Bote, ordered provincial head agent Pedro Roque Jr. to speed up the investigation, including the recent killings of some public-works contractors in Nueva Ecija.
Bote, also a contractor, was vying for a P100- million contract project that the DPWH had opened for bidding.
He was presumed to have been given an edge over other contractors who joined the bidding.
The mayor just came from a reported pre- qualifying meeting at the DPWH, leaving at about 4 p. m. and proceeding to the National Irrigation Administration office in Cabanatuan when he was killed.
An authopsy report showed that he died from gunshot wounds from seven bullets of a cal. 45 pistol– one in the chin and six in the body.
Ricardo Puno, DPWH 2nd District Engineering Office chief, said they furnished the Nueva Ecija police and NBI all records of the construction firm owned by Bote’s Liza’s Construction.
Aside from the P100- million project, the DPWH earlier awarded two flood control projects worth P80 million to Bote’s construction firm after the others allegedly failed to qualify, according to Edgardo De Guzman, DPWH assistant district chief.
Meanwhile, Nito Juatco, president of the Nueva Ecija Contractors Association with 54 members, condemned the killing of other local contractors before Bote.
First to be killed were Manny Lacsamana, an engineer from Cabanatuan City, and Manuel Parin of Santo Domingo town.
Lacsamana was killed by two unidentified gunmen while Parin was shot dead by a lone gunman at the compound of his residence.