Governor threatens to shoot vice governor in Zambales

OLONGAPO CITY -- The rift between the two top officials of Zambales continued to heat up after Governor Vicente Magsaysay reportedly threatened to shoot Vice Governor Ramon Lacbain II during a session of the provincial board here on Monday.

According to Lacbain, two of his staff members heard Magsaysay tell Board Member Erodito Paradeza, "Buti di ko dala .45 ko, kung hindi binaril ko na yang si vice governor (If I were carrying my .45 cal. pistol, I would have shot the vice governor)."

"This was the second time our governor had threatened to kill me," Lacbain told the Inquirer.
In October last year, he said Magsaysay also threatened to shoot him if he would oppose the governor's policies.

But Magsaysay dismissed Lacbain's accusations. "That's not true. He (Lacbain) is a big liar," Magsaysay told the Inquirer in a telephone interview on Wednesday. "The board members present during the session would prove that Lacbain's claims were all wrong," Magsaysay said.
Paradeza also denied Lacbain's claims, saying Magsaysay did not threaten the vice governor. "No such thing happened during our regular session," said Paradeza.

Board Member Fred Felarca said Magsaysay was present during the session but the governor did not threaten Lacbain.

"Walang nangyaring threat, duwag lang si Vice Gov. Lacbain (No threat was aired, Lacbain is just a coward)," said Felarca.

The conflict between Lacbain and Magsaysay started when Lacbain withdrew his support for a resolution authorizing Magsaysay to carry out a reorganization of the provincial bureaucracy last year.

Lacbain quoted Magsaysay as saying then, "(If you commit that same offense), I will kill you."
Lacbain also said the governor threatened to "bodily remove" him as presiding officer of the provincial board recently.

"[Magsaysay] also wanted to prevent all members of the provincial board from attending regular sessions so there would be no quorum," he said.

He said Magsaysay wanted him to withdraw his objection to a resolution appropriating P1 million in representation expenses of the governor.

"The governor already has a budget of P1.5 million for 2005 and to request for an additional one million pesos is already too much," Lacbain said.

He said several months ago, Magsaysay issued an executive order directing all officials and employees of the provincial government to exercise austerity measures.

"The governor removed my previous year's budget of P3 million and gave me zero budget for 2005 and yet his representation expenses total P2.5 million