Suspects in twin Abra slays hunted down

LA TRINIDAD, Benguet — Separate manhunts are ongoing for the killers of a councilor aspirant and a close-in bodyguard of a mayoralty bet in the Abra towns of Danglas and Peñarubbia, respectively.

Police have named a suspect in last Saturday’s gunslaying of Gregorio Castañeda, 44, a close-in bodyguard of Peñarubbia mayoralty candidate Wilmer Panabang.

Panabang is a retired police officer who is pitted against incumbent Mayor Jovelyn Dumes-ag and provincial board member Antonio Dumes-ag in the Peñarubbia mayoral race.

Dumes-ag is making a comeback in the town, hoping to retake the mayoral post, which he had held for 12 years, from Jovelyn, his former wife.

Senior Superintendent Artemio Hicban, Abra police director, said eyewitnesses have identified one of the motorcycle-riding men who pumped five caliber .45 bullets into Castañeda in front of Panabang’s house last Saturday afternoon.

Hicban, earlier inadvertently mentioned as the victim in the incident, said his men are also hunting down the assassin of Danglas councilor candidate Ceferino Callibag, 54.

Callibag was gunned down with an M-16 assault rifle inside their family-owned sari-sari store last Sunday night.

Police found eight empty M-16 shells at the crime scene.

Probers said it was the second attack on Callibag; the first was before the 2001 elections.

Chief Superintendent Rowland Albano, Cordillera police director, however, shrugged off suspicions that the gunslayings were election-related.

Albano attributed the killings to personal grudges between the victims and their killers.

Last month, 70 percent of Abra politicians, led by Gov. Vicente Valera and Rep. Luis Bersamin, forged a covenant for peace in Bangued town, purportedly to ensure clean, honest, peaceful and orderly elections in May.

A number of Abra towns have had a long history of intense political rivalries that often resulted in killings.

Police authorities are still studying which municipalities have to be declared "poll hot spots" and placed under the control of the Commission on Elections.