Former mayor’s aide gunned down in Valenzuela

A former bodyguard of a former mayor of Calumpit, Bulacan was shot dead by two suspects riding tandem on a motorcycle as the victim stood in a local billiards hall shortly before noon yesterday in Valenzuela City.

Dante Domingo, 40, married, resident of Baldomero street, Coloong 2, Valenzuela City, close-in security aide of former Calumpit mayor Ramon "Monching" Pagdanganan, sustained multiple gunshot wounds in the head and body and died on the spot.

Pagdanganan is a brother of Philippine International Trading Corp. president Roberto Pagdanganan, former Bulacan governor and Agriculture secretary, said Rommel Lacsamana, Barangay Coloong 2 secretary.

According to Lacsamana the suspects were stocky and armed with handguns of as yet unidentified caliber or make and riding on a motorcycle with no plates.

Lacsamana said the ambush was staged at around 11:30 a.m. at a billiards hall on Cuadra Compound where the victim was watching a game among locals.

At presstime, no official police report was yet available.

The suspects allegedly searched for their quarry in the area and without provocation shot the victim repeatedly before speeding away in their get-away vehicle.

Lacsamana, in a phone interview, theorized that the killing may have been prompted by revenge.

He said the victim could have earned the ire of the suspects while serving as Pagdanganan’s bodyguard.

Local police said they are still looking at other possible angles. – Jerry Botial