Another Isabela barangay head slain

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – Killings continue to mar Isabela’s once peaceful state. 

This, as another barangay chairman was gunned down in Isabela in broad daylight the other day, the second village chief to be slain or the fourth shooting incident to take place in a week in the province.  

The victim, Wilson Tan, re-elected chairman of Barangay 3 in Isabela’s San Mateo town, was attacked by a motorcycle-riding man just past noon last Tuesday.

Vice Mayor Roberto Agcaoili said seven of 11 bullets from a caliber .45 pistol hit Tan’s body, three in the head and four in the chest, killing him on the spot.

Tan’s killing came five days after another barangay chairman-elect, Alfredo Salvador of Barangay Bagong Sikat, Alicia town, also in Isabela, was killed in an ambush by a motorcycle-riding assailant.

Salvador, 56, sustained at least three gunshot wounds, while his mother, Virginia, 71, who was with him on board a tricycle, also succumbed to three bullets.

They had just come from the town market and were on their way home when they were fired at.

A day before the Alicia incident, a candidate for barangay chairman, Alexander Salazar, of Marikit in Isabela’s coastal Palanan town, and a companion, Ladislao Lanioza Jr., were killed in a reported shootout with a rival group allegedly led by the incumbent barangay chairman, Wilmer Atienza.

The groups of Atienza and Salazar reportedly crossed paths during a campaign sortie for the Palanan special barangay elections. A verbal tussle ensued, leading to the exchange of gunfire in the early morning of Nov. 17 or three days before the rescheduled polls.

The barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan polls in Palanan as well as in Divilacan and Maconacon towns were reset due to the destruction left by super typhoon “Juan.”

On other hand, businessman Johnny de Leon, 46, a defeated candidate for barangay chairman of Mabini in Isabela’s Santiago City, was lucky enough to survive at least three gunshot wounds in the chest just past midnight also last Tuesday.

Two of De Leon’s companions, a certain Sultan Laguindanab and Rodolfo Magat, also survived with a single bullet wound each.

De Leon, together with his two companions, was about to ride his vehicle when he was attacked in front of the city’s cockpit arena in Barangay Dubinan East past midnight last Tuesday. 

De Leon, who lost his second bid for barangay chairman by a slim margin, has been on the watch list of the regional police of suspected drug personalities. He has denied being involved in the illegal drug trade.          – With Raymund Catindig