Grenade lobbed at home of Ecija town mayor in election row
JAEN, NUEVA ECIJA—A hand grenade was hurled early Saturday morning at the home of ousted Mayor Sylvia Austria, who is in a middle of an electoral row with sitting Mayor Antonio Prospero Esquivel.
The incident happened just days after the Commission on Elections (Comelec) ordered the Department of the Interior and Local Government (DILG) to reinstall Austria as the town mayor and for Esquivel to vacate the office.
The grenade, described as “a highly explosive M67,” did not explode. It was thrown at 2:39 a.m. by motorcycle-riding men who were caught by security cameras, according to Police Maj. Baltazar Corpuz, the municipal chief of police.
The unexploded grenade was secured by the Nueva Ecija Police Explosive and Ordnance Division (EOD) from the mayor’s gate in Barangay San Josef Navao at 7:58 a.m.
Alarmed
Had it exploded, the grenade could have damaged the gate and anything else within a 15-meter radius, Corpuz said.
But one of two detonation pins of the grenade was still attached to the explosive when the EOD team found it.
Lawyer Dominic Garen, Austria’s lawyer and spokesperson, said the attack has alarmed the mayor’s neighbors.
“On the same night, two people were killed in a different village,” he added, referring to the Friday shooting of a village councilman and a tanod (village watchman) in Barangay Sto. Tomas Norte.
Corpuz said investigators were scanning footage from other security cameras in the area to help track down the grenade-throwing riders.
Supporters quickly trooped to Austria at her home.
Ruling overturned
The mayor expects to be reinstated this coming week based on an order from the Comelec Second Division that overturned the Dec. 7, 2020, ruling of Judge Angelo Perez of the Regional Trial Court Branch 87 that declared Esquivel as the winner in the 2019 mayoral race.
Esquivel, who continues to hold office as mayor at the municipal hall, has refused to vacate the post saying that a Comelec order could not supersede a ruling from the court.
The Comelec order was issued to the DILG on Feb. 3, and gave the agency three days to execute its directive.