JEDDAH, 11 November 2004 — The chairman of the trouble-prone International Philippine School in Jeddah (IPSJ) was injured yesterday in a suspected attempt on his life, Arab News learned.
Lito Lazo, chairman of the IPSJ Board of Trustees, suffered bruises on his face, shoulders and knees after he was intentionally sideswiped by a white Nissan Sunny at around 9:30 a.m. yesterday, in front of his villa in Baladeyah district.
“I was about to open the door of my car when this white car came speeding toward me. Before I could react, I was hit by its front door on the passenger side, which suddenly opened,” he said.
Lazo said he fell to the road and was taken to the emergency room of the King Fahd General Hospital by his neighbor and friend, Alex Macabanding, a former official of the school.
From the emergency room, he reported the incident to police.
In an interview with Arab News later, he said he had no doubt that the attempt on his life had something to do with the school.
“I think they want to hit me so that they can have their way in the school,” he said in Filipino.
He said he knew who they are but that he would leave the matter to the police and to God.
Lazo said he had been taking precautions because concerned members of the IPSJ community warned him a few days before the incident that someone planned to harm him.
“Sir, please be careful because they want to hit you,” he quoted one community member as saying.
He said what alerted him yesterday was when he found all the tires of his car deflated and the hood dented. It was when he opened the front door to inspect the damage when the suspects’ car hit him.
Lazo’s friends reportedly told him that the “goons” who tried to overrun him yesterday are not from Jeddah. “They were hired from another place to do the dirty job for somebody,” he said without elaborating.
Whoever were behind the attempt on Lazo’s life, parents who talked with Arab News were one in saying that the IPSJ chair was a risky position.
Efren Rodriguez, who presided over the school’s tumultuous years from 2000 to 2002, had been repeatedly harmed physically. Even last year when he was no longer a school official, he was mugged by “goons” in front of his apartment near the school.
