| Injured | Killed |
|---|---|
| 0 | 1 |
Date: 05 April 2013
Source: Julius D. Mariveles, InterAksyon.com April 5, 2013 11:23 AM
http://www.interaksyon.com/article/58723/former-negros-village-councilman-shot-dead-soldiers-raid-town-councilors-house
BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — A former village councilman who was arranging the burial of his father was shot dead inside the city hall of in the southern Negros city of Himamaylan, around 90 kilometers south of here, Thursday afternoon.
Meanwhile, in the central Negros town of Moises Padilla, a joint team of police and Army Scout Rangers raided the house of a councilor on suspicions the official was harboring a New People’s Army team leader who allegedly led the January 27 ambush in the upland village of Puso in La Castellana in which nine people were killed.
“This could be a grudge killing,” provincial police caretaker, Senior Supt. Celestino Guara, told InterAksyon as he explained that the murder victim, Edgar Coleta, had been involved in a 2003 shooting along with the former barangay captain of Carabalan.
Guara, however, withheld the identity of the former village chief, who is considered one of the suspects in the broad daylight murder of Coleta, 56.
In the Himamamaylan incident, Senior Police Officer 1 Virgilio Parcon said Coleta was asking City Engineer’s Office personnel about the delivery of cement bags for his father’s tomb when one of two men riding a motorcycle walked in and shot him.
Policemen recovered the motorcycle in sitio Kampayas, Carabalan.
Politically motivated?
“They said it was not a raid, just a ‘verification’ of the information that Kumander Magno was staying in my house,” Moises Padilla Councilor Jimmy Don Plaza told InterAksyon, adding that the policemen and soldiers had no search warrant.
However, he said he has no plans of filing a complaint against members of the Barangay Peacekeeping Action Team, local police and Scout Rangers who went to his house the afternoon of April 2.
Plaza said the local Liberal Party, under which he is seeking reelection, had just finished the opening salvo of their campaign when the unexpected visit took place.
“I immediately let them in the house to prove to them that I was not hiding anyone,” Plaza, who is the chairman of the town council’s peace and order committee, said.
He said the raid was witnessed by Vice Mayor Cepriano Remo, Jr. and many of their supporters.
The raiders found, not the rebel commander, but his son Reymar Flores, who had attended the LP political rally.
Plaza said the incident could be politically motivated since their political opponents are also wooing Reymar’s support.