Rebels kill PPC councilor

Suspected New People’s Army (NPA) guerrillas shot dead a municipal councilor in Albay during a campaign rally last Saturday night, authorities said.

This developed as an Iloilo mayor was tagged as allegedly responsible for the strafing of his opponent’s house last Friday, which resulted in injuries to three persons.

Albay police said three still unidentified men gunned down councilor Antonio Mancera, 53, of Jubillar town, while he was speaking onstage in Barangay Salvacion at about 7:30 p.m. the other day.

Investigators said the assailants went onstage, grabbed the microphone from Mancera and shot him in the head with caliber .45 pistols.

Mancera, who belonged to the People Power Coalition, earlier had denounced NPA abuses and atrocities in Barangay Rizal where he once served as chairman.

Elsewhere in the Bicol region, the house of an active supporter of a mayoral candidate in San Fernando, Masbate was torched by armed men before dawn last Saturday.

Lourdes Almenina, 40, who backs the mayoral candidacy of Helen Bunan who belongs to the Lakas-NUCD, said she was awakened by thick smoke at about 3:30 a.m. and immediately rushed out of her house.

Witnesses claimed having seen a group of armed men setting Almenina’s house on fire.

Meanwhile, in San Dionisio, Iloilo, mayoral candidate Pio Villanueva accused the town’s incumbent mayor, Peter Paul Lopez, who is now running for vice mayor, of allegedly leading the strafing of his house at about 10:30 p.m. last Friday.

The incident happened on the eve of the town’s fiesta when most of Villanueva’s supporters were in the poblacion for the next day’s celebration. Villanueva’s house is located 14 kilometers from the town proper.

Villanueva claimed having seen Lopez coming out of a pick-up and wielding an M-16 Armalite rifle minutes before the strafing.

Villanueva alleged that Lopez fired shots at his house. He said he was at the porch with retired general Ernesto Canong, who is Lopez’s opponent in the vice mayoral race.

Villanueva said he hid behind a truck near the garage of his house during the 30-minute strafing.

He said he saw several men with high-powered firearms around his house. "The porch had no light. However, the street posts were all lighted up, that’s why we were able to see the gunmen," he recounted.

Responding policemen found 29 5.56 mm shells, two M203 shells, two 9 mm shells and the cap of a rifle grenade at the scene.

Senior Inspector Liberty Bartolome, officer-in-charge of the San Dionisio police, said they could not file a case against Lopez because the victims would not give any statements to the police.

"They said they will be the ones who will file the case against Mayor Lopez whom they identified as the mastermind in the attack," Bartolome said.

Villanueva and Canong are expected to file charges against Lopez with the San Dionisio Municipal Trial Court today.

The three wounded were identified as Ricky Guion, Renato Malones and Dan Villanueva.