Canlaon City mayor’s guard slain in ambush

A bodyguard of the incumbent mayor of Canlaon City, Oriental Negros was gunned down in a late morning ambush yesterday while driving a city-owned Nissan Frontier.

The victim, 39-year-old Feliciano Tajaron Lubresco, sustained multiple gunshot wounds to the back and did not make it alive to the Canlaon City District Hospital.

According to initial reports reaching the Oriental Negros Provincial Police, Lubresco was waylaid by two unidentified men along the provincial road in sitio Tukon-Tukon, barangay Linuthangan of the city at past 10 a.m. yesterday. The attackers reportedly fled on a motorcycle.

Provincial Police director, Sr. Supt. Melvin Buenafe, said Lubresco was driving alone at the time reportedly on his way to his farm.

Canlaon City is more than 100 kilometers away from Dumaguete City. The Nissan Frontier (with plate number SGC 672) bore 23 bullet holes and city policemen recovered 25 shells of an M16 rifle from the crime scene.

Buenafe forwarded to The Freeman the text message of his men at the crime scene stating that there were indications of another motive in the killing besides politics.

The victim was a former member of the New People’s Army and usually went to his farm every Sunday to see his workers. On that occasion he was coming with their salaries.

"The victim, who was alone, used the mayor’s vehicle without the latter’s knowledge," the text message from the police read. It added that the victim’s wallet and cellular phone were not taken.

It was recalled that in the 2001 elections, then vice mayor Jose Cardenas, the husband of incumbent Mayor Judith Cardenas, was also killed along with five others in an ambush.

Last March, a barangay captain who was a political supporter of a congressional candidate, was killed in an ambush in La Libertad, Negros Oriental.

The provincial Comelec office has been considering putting Canlaon City and eight other towns of the First District of Oriental Negros under Comelec control. — Ferliza Contratista and Norvie S. Misa/RAE