Jueteng scam whistle-blower Wilfredo Mayor shot dead

A key witness in the Senate investigation into the alleged involvement of several government officials in a jueteng payola scandal in 2005 was shot dead in an ambush in Pasay City on Sunday. The Catholic Bishops' Conference of the Philippines said Wilfredo “Boy" Mayor, 55, succumbed to gunshot wounds before doctors at the San Juan de Dios Hospital could treat him. “Mayor, together with Alan Castro, his son-in-law and driver, and Rommel Mayor, a nephew, were on board a blue Volvo car on their way to BF Homes in Parañaque when the incident happened at about 4:30 a.m.," the CBCP said in its Web site.

The CBCP, quoting police reports, said two men on a motorcycle fired at the victims along the Manila International Airport Road in Pasay City. Mayor was hit in the head and body, while Castro was in critical condition at the San Juan de Dios Hospital. Rommel, who was sitting at the back, was unhurt. During Senate hearings in 2005, Mayor had testified that First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo and several government officials received money from jueteng, a popular but illegal numbers game. The First Gentleman denied the allegation. Mayor and self-confessed jueteng bagwoman Sandra Cam confessed their involvement in the multi-billion peso racket but have since become advocates of an anti-gambling group founded by retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz. - KBK, GMANews.TV