Angeles poll officials fear for lives

ANGELES CITY - Fearing for their lives, Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials have reportedly gone into hiding after their colleague was killed over the weekend by two still unidentified suspects in front of his home in Barangay Sto. Domingo here.

Angeles City police director Senior Superintendent Jimmy Restua said investigators have failed to get any statement from any of the four Comelec officials who were meeting at the house of victim, deputy registrar Ponciano Palo, when he was killed.

The officials, led by city registrar Cora Jane Balero, reportedly fled to a safehouse in Pampanga after the shooting.

Restua assured the Comelec officials that he will provide them police security if necessary.

"We still do not have clues on the identities and motives of the suspect. We are not saying there is politics involved, but the manner in which the shooting was carried out seems to indicate it was not perpetrated by the New People’s Army," Restua said.

Restua appealed to the Comelec officials to come out and give their testimonies to help investigators pursue the case. He noted that the Comelec officials, who brought the victim to the Mt. Carmel hospital where the latter was pronounced dead on arrival, fled even before police investigators could question them.

"I really hope they will cooperate," Restua said, hoping the poll officials would report for work today and give their testimonies to investigators.

Restua said that while Balero was reported to have claimed that she was the target of the gunman, she has not surfaced to issue any statement to the police.

The Comelec officials were reportedly at Palo’s house Friday night to discuss where to relocate their office after the Angeles Electric Corp. (AEC), largely owned by the politically powerful Nepomuceno clan, cut off electricity at the city hall last Wednesday for unpaid electric bills worth over P6 million.

Restua said witnesses saw the gunman and an accomplice who escaped onboard a motorcycle.

There were tricycle drivers who witnessed the incident, but no one so far has come out with the plate number of the motorcycle, he added.

Angeles Mayor Carmelo Lazatin had reportedly proposed the Gabaldon elementary school for the local Comelec office to finish with the revalidation and registration of new voters, while the Nepomucenos were reported to have offered space at the Nepo mall which they own. Comelec officials, however, were reported to have disregarded the offers.

Lazatin is planning to run for congressmen against Rep. Francis Nepomuceno, who family reportedly controls the AEC. But should a Senate bill be passed separating Magalang and Mabalacat from Angeles in the first district, political observers said Lazatin might reconsider running for a third term as mayor which would pit him with the congressman’s younger brother Bong Nepomuceno. — Ding Cervantes