Politics in Bayan leader’s slay?

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan — A task force probing last Tuesday’s gunslaying of the provincial secretary-general of the militant Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (Bayan) is looking into the possibility that politics motivated it.

Superintendent Noli Taliño, deputy provincial director for operations and head of Task Force Doton, told The STAR yesterday that they were verifying reports that politics might have something to do with the killing of Bayan leader Jose Doton, 62.

Doton and his younger brother, Diosdado, 57, were on their way home on board a motorcycle when they were ambushed in Barangay Camanggaan, San Nicolas town. Diosdado was wounded in the attack.

Taliño said they learned that Doton was also a leader of San Nicolas Mayor Leoncio Saldivar III.

It may be recalled that former San Nicolas mayor Conrado Rodrigo was slain about two years ago.

Police were also looking into Doton’s involvement in the fight against the San Roque Dam as chairman of Timpuyog Ti Mannalon A Mangwayawaya Ti Agno, which is opposed to the project.

Doton, as president of an association of gold panners in Pangasinan, vigorously fought for the rights of gold panners displaced by the construction of the San Roque Dam.

Taliño said the task force has received reports that gold panners belonging to Doton’s group have yet to be compensated although other groups had been paid.