Pangasinan town mayor shot dead

URBIZTONDO, Pangasinan, Philippines – This town’s mayor was gunned down by two unidentified men yesterday, on the eve of twin celebrations in his family – his wedding anniversary and the marriage of his councilor-son.

Two others were killed in the attack on Mayor Ernesto Balolong Jr., a police security aide and a bystander, while three more were wounded.

Balolong, his bodyguard PO1 Eliseo Ulanday and bystander Edmund Meneses died from multiple gunshot wounds.

Jose Vejella, a supermarket stockman, Rex Ferrer, and Rogelio Esguerra, a taho (soy curd) vendor, were also hit during the attack. They were brought to a nearby hospital and declared in stable condition.

Balolong was reportedly buying taho from Esguerra near a bus terminal in Barangay Poblacion when the two gunmen approached him and opened fire at close range.

Balolong was on his way to the Urbiztondo Hotel and Convention Center to check on preparations for his 15th wedding anniversary celebration today when he was fired upon with automatic weapons. The gunmen fled in a van toward San Carlos City.

A witness recalled seeing the two assailants, armed with an M-16 assault rifle and a 9-mm automatic, alighting from a dark gray Toyota Innova van parked nearby.

Police later found the getaway vehicle abandoned in Barangay Cauayan Kiling, San Carlos City.

The police are investigating the incident but The STAR learned that Balolong had been receiving death threats.

Two hours before his murder, The STAR talked to him by phone and he repeated his invitation to attend his wedding anniversary celebration.

The celebration would also have been the wedding of his eldest son, Councilor Volter Balolong, to Angela Arce.

In a chance meeting last Wednesday in a mall in Dagupan City where he was shopping with his five-year-old son and some companions, Balolong told The STAR he had no plans of filing counter charges against those behind the administrative cases against him at the provincial board.

Balolong, a member of the ruling Liberal Party, was ordered suspended by the provincial board last March but Malacañang issued a stay order pending appeal of his administrative case.

In 2012, Balolong was also ordered suspended by the provincial board for a spate of administrative cases but Malacañang lifted his suspension.

Balolong faced four administrative cases involving a loan taken out by the town and allegedly unpaid monthly premiums of municipal employees in the Government Service Insurance System, PhilHealth and Pag-IBIG Fund.

Balolong said the charges were political harassment, and that records would show that these were all fabrications.

In November last year, agents of National Bureau of Investigation raided his residence, piggery and farmhouses and confiscated at least 21 firearms. These, however, were found to be licensed, except for an M-16 and M-14 rifles that were the subject of alleged tampering.

Balolong admitted buying them as loose firearms but had them licensed under the government’s firearms amnesty program.

Balolong was also implicated in the killing of former Lingayen vice mayor Ramon Arcinue and his wife Zorahayda in Manila 2012. No case though was filed against him in connection with the couple’s killing. – With Mike Frialde