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Lawyer Rafaelito Garayblas, the secretary of Manila Mayor Alfredo
Lim, on Saturday dismissed negative comments being made against him
in the light of a failed attempt on his life.
Garayblas chided police investigators who are
allegedly making it appear that he refuses to cooperate with the
investigation or surrender his firearms for ballistic examination.
“There was no request from the police for us
to submit our firearms for paraffin test,” he said, adding that he
never drove an investigator away as rumors had it.
Two of his companions during the alleged
assassination attempt were able to identify Zosimo Buco and Andy
Tupaz as among those who fired at their vehicle in Quezon City
around 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.
Police initially presented Buco and Tupaz as
among the bystanders who were accidentally hit during the gunfire,
but the two later tested positive for gunpowder during a subsequent
paraffin test.
Garayblas claimed that the only police
investigator who was talking to them right after the incident was
Chief Supt. Alex Gutierrez, the chief of the Manila City Hall Police
Office, and another man who happens to be his son’s former
classmate.
His group was aboard his red Subaru Forester
when men on motorcycles fired at them.
The lawyer’s security personnel riding
separate vehicles from behind saw the incident and tried to fight
back. Slain in the assault was one Christopher Abasula and hurt were
Garayblas’ son, driver and clerk and four others, who were hit by
stray bullets.
-- Rommel C. Lontayao
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