Ecija dad, P’sinan b’gay councilman gunned down

A councilor seeking re-election in Muñoz City, Nueva Ecija was gunned down inside a videoke bar, while a barangay kagawad and supporter of the mayor of Calasiao, Pangasinan met the same fate in the hands of two motorcycle-riding men.

The Regional Election Monitoring Action Center (REMAC) based in Camp Olivas, Pampanga said Muñoz councilor Mauricio Corpuz, 47, and two companions were drinking inside a videoke bar in Barangay Bantug last Tuesday night when two men shot him four times with caliber .45 pistols.

The gunmen pretended to be handing him a solicitation letter. After the incident, they fled aboard a motorcycle.

Corpuz was running under the Balane party of Nueva Ecija Gov. Tomas Joson III.

In Calasiao, Pangasinan, barangay councilman Danny Solano, 39, a supporter of re-electionist Mayor Roy Macanlalay, was driving a tricycle when two men riding tandem in a motorcycle overtook and shot him five times — three in the head and two in the abdomen — killing him on the spot last Wednesday night.

One of Solano’s passengers, Beatriz de Leon, was hit in the right hand, the bullet piercing through her left foot. She is now in stable condition.

Kagawad Tan Zabala, who was seated behind Solano, managed to run away and hid in a grassy area. The gunmen shot him but they missed.

Solano’s group had come from a barangay fiesta and was on their way to another fiesta when the incident happened.

Macanlalay suspects that politics was behind Solano’s killing, but Chief Inspector Rogelio Danole, Calasiao police chief, said probers have yet to establish this.

The Calasiao slay happened two days after a councilor in Sual town was killed.

Elsewhere, motorcycle-riding men strafed the house of Lakas-CMD mayoral candidate Lloyd Surigao in Palompon, Leyte before dawn yesterday. No one was reported hurt.

Surigao was asleep when it happened. His house doubles as his campaign headquarters.

Surigao is contesting the re-election of Mayor Marcelo Oñate. — with Cesar Ramirez and Roberto Dejon