Lakas-Kampi barangay leader shot dead in Surigao

SURIGAO CITY,Philippines – A barangay political leader of the local party Padajon-Surigao and the administration’s Lakas-Kampi-CMD was shot dead in Tagana-an, Surigao del Norte yesterday morning, the town’s mayor said.

Tagana-an Mayor Cesar Diaz said two men attacked former Army sergeant Oscar Cayumo Animo, 55, with caliber .45 pistols while he was cruising Sitio Binggale, Barangay Bamban on a motorcycle.

Police said it does not consider the killing of Animo, a small-scale miner, as politically motivated, although it gave assurance that they would further investigate his killing.

But Animo’s wife Lolita, 52, believes otherwise, saying her husband worked as a political coordinator and barangay leader of Lakas-Kampi-CMD presidential bet Gilbert Teodoro and local party Padajon-Surigao.

Diaz, who is seeking re-election under Padajon-Surigao and Lakas-Kampi-CMD, confirmed this.

Animo’s murder was the second killing believed to be politically motivated in Tagana-an town.

Last December, Nacionalista Party vice mayoral bet Wilbert Suanco Origenes was gunned down in his home in Tagana-an by two motorcycle-riding men.

Three months earlier, the vice mayor of San Francisco, Surigao del Norte, who had announced that he would run for mayor, was shot dead in front of his home in Barangay Kaskag, Surigao City.

Both Tagana-an and San Francisco towns have been declared election hot spots.

Senior Superintendent Nestor Monton Fajura, operations chief of the Caraga regional police, told The STAR in a text message that the Regional Mobile Group would augment the Tagana-an police to avert more untoward incidents in the town.