SAN CARLOS CITY – The prominent Soriano clan thru a spokesman here denied insinuations it was involved in the killing of Mayor Julian V. Resuello.

Former Vice-Mayor Ansberto “Harry” Cagampan, running mate of comebacking former Mayor Douglas Soriano, told a radio interview that the family would never resort to such violent scheme just to topple the present city administration.

Cagampan, who was a former ally of Resuello during their days as councilors opposing the administration of Soriano in the 1990s, said surveys showed that their group was faring better than the Resuello camp so that it would not make sense for the Soriano party to resort to violent means just to win.

He pointed out that history would show that no violent incidents happened during the time of the Sorianos, referring to the reign of Douglas and his father, the late Jack Soriano, who also became a member of Congress.

Since the accusing finger would naturally point to the family, being the rival of the Resuellos in this election, he said the clan have thus asked authorities to solve the incident immediately. “Kaya nga nanawagan kami sa mga otoridad na bilisan ang pagresolba sa kaso,”(That’s why we are asking the authorities to sped up the investigation) he said.

The Resuello family tagged the incident politically-motivated but have not specifically linked any specific party publicly.

City Information Officer Guido Tiong in a radio interview however claimed that suspected gunmen Angelito Soriano and Cesar de Guzman were identified with the Soriano camp.

His statement quickly drew a rejoinder from a Soriano camp source who denied that neither Soriano nor De Guzman were related to or in the employ of the Soriano clan. In fact, according to the Soriano camp source, the suspect was working for another candidate, not them..

The spokesman described as “unkind” Tiong’s statement, tagging them for the killing and practically accusing the police of favoring the Sorianos by looking at other angles of the killing, aside from politics.

“That’s rather unkind of Fr. Tiong (the information officer was a former priest). He should know that the police run their independent investigation and would naturally look at all angles in solving a crime before making a conclusion, lest they be accused of being sloppy, ” he said.

“More than anyone in San Carlos City, it is us ( Sorianos) who would want to get at the truth in this case to save our family name from peddlers of half-truths and outright lies,” he added.

When Resuello was elected councilor in the late 1980s, he found himself the leading opposition figure to the administration of Soriano whose nine-year reign started in 1988.

Resuello subsequently became vice-mayor and in 1998 he won as mayor defeating Soriano’s brother, Wilhelm.

He was on his third and last term this year so that his son, Julier, the incumbent vice-mayor, was made the standard bearer with him (Julian) sliding to the vice-mayor position.

Reports said the slain mayor had warned his son to avoid the crowd during the fiesta celebration in view of intelligence reports about the presence of armed men. Oddly, he himself let his guard down as he was reportedly thrilled by the big crowd gathered for the coronation of the city fiesta queen.

While busy pressing flesh on his way to the stage, assailants fired at him at close range hitting him on the abdomen. (DOS)