New task force to look into ambush of jueteng whistle-blower

The Southern Police District formed a task force on Monday to look into the ambush of jueteng payola whistleblower Wilfredo “Boy" Mayor, who testified at the Senate in 2005 about the alleged involvement of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s husband in the illegal numbers game. SPD head Chief Supt. Jaime Calungsod ordered the formation of Task Force Mayor, to be headed by Pasay City police head Senior Supt. Raul Petrasanta and SPD intelligence division head Supt. Boyet Samala, Radio dzBB’s Sam Nielsen reported.
Other members from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, the Scene of the Crime Operatives and the intelligence and legal divisions are also expected to aid in the probe. Still unidentified armed men shot Mayor in vehicle along the MIA Road in Pasay City. His son-in-law Alan Castro and nephew Rommel Mayor survived the attack. Mayor, a 55-year-old Albay native, implicated the First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo and other government officials in the popular numbers game in 2005. The First Gentleman denied the allegations. Another witness, Sandra Cam, testified that she collected payoffs from jueteng lords and delivered them to Presidential son and Pampanga Rep. Juan Miguel “Mikey" Arroyo and Negros Occidental Rep. Ignacio “Iggy" Arroyo, brother of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo. Both denied accusations. On Monday, Cam said she requested police protection after what happened to Mayor. Mayor and Cam confessed their involvement in the gambling racket but have since become advocates of an anti-gambling group founded by retired Lingayen-Dagupan Archbishop Oscar Cruz. Also on Monday, Cruz said Mayor had been receiving death threats because he was about to expose a firm’s alleged anomalies in road projects in Albay. The firm supposedly had constantly “cornered" government projects in the province. Cruz, however, declined to name the firm. “Sinabi [ni Mayor] sa akin may tangka na sa kaniyang buhay. Ang gusto niya ilahad, i-expose sa bayan kung ano talaga ito (Mayor told me that his life was under threat. He just wanted to expose this anomaly to the public)," Cruz said. - RJAB Jr., GMANews.TV