Community leader, town security chief killed

A female community leader who had led an anti-graft campaign in Sta. Rosa City in Laguna, and the security chief of Rodriguez town in Rizal were gunned down in separate incidents, police said.

Melita Trinidad Carvajal, 51, president of the Samahan ng mga Mamamayan Para sa Kagalingan, Kabutihan at Kapayapaan in Sta. Rosa, was waiting for a ride in front of her house when two men shot her in the head and chest yesterday.

Witnesses said the gunmen were about to flee when they noticed her still breathing so they returned and finished her off with more bullets.

Learning about her killing, human rights groups in Southern Tagalog, including Bayan and Karapatan, staged an indignation rally yesterday afternoon.

Carvajal, who ran for councilor during the recent polls, had been seeking justice for her husband, Pedro, who was killed in the early 1990s.

Two Sta. Rosa lawmen, SPO1s Edgar Marasigan and Ronnie Porcincula, were charged for Pedro’s killing. The former was shot dead by a woman two weeks after the murder, while the latter remains at large.

Pedro was murdered during the administration of Mayor Leon Arcillas and the term of Senior Inspector Eduardo Sanque as the local police chief.

Arcillas is still the mayor, and Sanque, now a superintendent, the police chief.

Meanwhile, in Rizal, motorcycle-riding men ambushed and killed Renato Evasco, 64, chief security officer of Rodriguez town, last Thursday night.

Evasco, a retired police captain, died from five bullet wounds from a caliber .45 pistol.

Police said the gunmen blocked the path of Evasco’s Anfra vehicle in Barangay Manggahan and then fired at him. — Rene Alviar, Non Alquitran