Defeated Jaen mayoral bet hurt in gun attack
JAEN, Nueva Ecija – A mayoral bet who lost during the 2022 local polls here survived a gun attack allegedly by unidentified sedan-riding suspects on Saturday here.
The victim, identified as Ramir Dela Cruz, a contractor engineer, of Barangay San Pablo, was partaking in lunch inside a tent at 10:40 a.m. (January 21) when a silver-colored sedan stopped by the roadside, opened its window and its occupant suddenly shot the victim several times before fleeing in the south direction.
Dela Cruz was then supervising the construction of a gasoline station to be put up in his vacant lot in Bgy. Sapang when he was attacked.
Police Captain Franklin D. Sindac, provincial police information officer, said the wounded victim was immediately rushed to the Nueva Ecija Doctors Hospital in Cabanatuan City for emergency treatment.
Dela Cruz ran but lost in a four-cornered mayoral fight during the 2022 local elections here.
Reelectionist Mayor Sylvia C. Austria won the race, with Dela Cruz and former mayor Antonio Prospero Esquivel placing second and third, respectively.
The latest gun attack came barely a month after municipal number one councilor Santy Matias was wounded in an ambush perpetrated by riding-in-tandem suspects last Dec. 27, 2022.
Major Robert De Guzman, town police head, said they are still investigating the shooting.
