| Injured | Killed |
|---|---|
| 0 | 1 |
Date: 22 September 2010
Source: http://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/regions/view/20100923-293923/Ex-village-chief-shot-dead-in-Sagay-City
BACOLOD CITY, Philippines —An unidentified gunman shot dead Wednesday night a former barangay chairman planning to run for village chief in Sagay City, Negros Occidental, the police said.
Noel Api, 48, succumbed to five gunshot wounds in different parts of his body after he was shot by the gunman in front of his house in Barangay Makiling, Sagay City, Senior Inspector Gabriel Gutierrez, the city’s police chief, said.
Gutierrez said they were still investigating if politics had something to do with killing of Api. He, however, said information gathered by investigators from the victim’s family showed that politics might not be the motive.
The gunman immediately fled on board a motorcycle. Five empty shells from a .45 pistol were recovered by the Sagay police at the crime scene.
The live-in partner of Api, Joy Alduhisa, 34, was invited on Thursday for questioning by the Sagay police while a witness who saw the gunman near the house of Api before the shooting took place was brought to Camp Alfredo Montelibano Sr. in Bacolod City, to help the police in making sketches of the gunman.
Alduhisa has three children with the victim. There are reports that Api has another woman.
Api, who served as the barangay chairman of Makiling in Sagay City for six years, lost his re-election bid in the 2007 elections.
Sagay police learned that Api, who was separated from his wife, had a record of beating up Joy, who almost sued the former village chief but the two later opted for an amicable settlement.
Gutierrez said Api was reportedly planning to run for barangay chairman in the October 25 barangay elections. He, however, said that the incumbent Makiling barangay chair Mercedita Datolayca, and the victim were in good terms.
The Sagay police say they are looking into personal grudge as an angle in the killing and have been verifying reports that the killer is a “gun-for-hire.”