P-Noy condemns killing of mayor

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines -   – Still unidentified suspects gunned down Calbayog City Mayor Reynaldo Uy and wounded Samar board member Eunice Babalcon during a town fiesta in Hinabangan town in this city around 9:30 Saturday night.

President Aquino condemned the killing of his partymate and directed Philippine National Police chief Director General Raul Bacalzo to

conduct an immediate investigation and arrest the perpetrators. He hinted that the killing may have been related to politics.

Uy, 59, died while undergoing treatment at the Divine Word Hospital here.

Babalcon, who was hit on the right shoulder by the same bullet that penetrated the body of the mayor, is now out of danger.

President Aquino condemned the killing of his partymate and directed Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Raul Bacalzo to conduct an immediate investigation and arrest the perpetrators. He hinted that the killing may have been related to politics.

“We have directed Bacalzo to ensure that they clamp down on the entire province to prevent anymore instances of violence. I think it is the regional director who’s heading the actual investigation to come to a solution for this,” he said.

“I may take this opportunity also to emphasize to the regional director and provincial director and the various chiefs of police that I am looking at them right now and they better perform,” Aquino warned.

“I pressed Raul Bacalzo to ensure a speedy investigation, the arrest of the people behind this dastardly act. You know, they were shot, I understand, while their heads were bowed in an invocation,” he added.

The two injured victims, according to the President, were the prospective governor and vice gubernatorial candidates in the May 2013 midterm elections.

“I can assure the people of the province of Uy that the police will exert – together with the Armed Forces – maximum efforts to ensure that there will be a clamp down and there will be no more untoward incidents of violence,” he said.

Responding policemen recovered one .45 caliber pistol ammunition and two empty shells at the crime scene.

“Until now we still have no suspects. The PNP Regional Office 8 will create a task force that will investigate the recent killing. We will focus our investigation on the political or personal angle so we can connect the motive. I’m appealing to witnesses to cooperate in the investigation,” Samar PNP provincial director Senior Superintendent Macapagal said.

Calbiga Samar Mayor Boy Latorre, who is also the president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines (LMP) Samar chapter, said he was sitting beside Uy but went out for a smoke. Babalcon had taken his seat when the shooting took place.

Latorre was among the five mayors who accompanied the victims to the hospital.

He said their group just came from Uy’s speaking engagement in Samar State University in Catbalogan City and was about to go back to the city for another appointment when the incident happened.

Police security escorts had a hard time pursuing the perpetrators because the people inside the gym ran in different directions.

Uy earlier claimed that he had been receiving death threats since before the 2010 elections, prompting him to get bodyguards. – Delon Porcalla