Ilocos bet in poll tie shot dead

SANTA, Ilocos Sur – The election for barangay chairman that resulted in a tie in a coastal village here turned tragic yesterday when suspected guns-for-hire killed one of them.

The victim, Danny Bernido, was sitting with his wife along the coastline of Barangay Tabucolan when two gunmen approached them and shot him at close range with a  caliber .38 revolver. The wife was spared.

Bernido and his rival, Elvira Bagoyo, obtained 81 votes each, resulting in a tie, which the local Commission on Elections was supposed to resolve yesterday with the traditional tossing of a coin, until the killing.

Vice Mayor Jesus Bueno believes that the slaying was election-related, saying that Bernido received a death threat before the election and had it entered into the police blotter.

Besides the political angle though, police Bernido’s past, including his being tagged as a suspect in a murder, which, however, has been resolved. – With Myds Supnad