CABANATUAN CITY – A younger brother of the former two-term mayor of Pantabangan, Nueva Ecija was shot dead by a lone gunman near the poblacion of the adjacent town of Rizal Thursday, police reported yesterday.
Senior Superintendent Napoleon Taas, provincial police director, identified the victim as Nestor Uera, 50, of Poblacion East, Pantabangan town. Uera was the younger brother of former two-term mayor Lucio Uera who lost to Mayor Romeo Borja in last May’s elections. Lucio is a close ally of Vice Gov. Edward Thomas Joson of the Bagong Lakas ng Nueva Ecija (Balane).
The younger Uera was a former convict who was tagged for the killing of an executive of the National Power Corp.
Taas said Nestor was in his lugawan (porridge) store near the municipal hall of Rizal when shot from close range by an unidentified assailant at around 11:15 am Thursday.
The suspect, brandishing a 45 caliber revolver, walked near Nestor than pumped three bullets in his body. After the shooting, the gunman casually walked away from the crime scene.
Taas said the suspect also exchanged gunshots with responding lawmen before escaping using a get-away vehicle toward the Rizal-Bongabon provincial Road.
Senior Inspector Samuel Avila, Rizal police chief, said they are looking at an old grudge angle as the motive behind the attack, which came barely an hour after two security escorts of a close ally of Nueva Ecija Gov. Aurelio Umali were gunned down in Sto. Domingo town. – Manny Galvez