Cagayan lawmaker's aide faces raps for colleague's slay

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines  – Murder charges are being readied against an aide of Cagayan third district Rep. Randolph Ting for last Friday’s slay of a colleague in Cagayan’s Tuguegarao City capital.

Superintendent Pedro Martires, Tuguegarao City police director, identified the suspect as Victorino Mabatan, 50, of the city’s Buntun village, whom authorities held for the shooting to death of Michael Panaligan, 36, last Friday night.

The suspect and the victim, who were both aides of Ting, had a personal grudge over the latter’s reportedly having a relationship with the former’s daughter.

“A murder case is now set for filing (before the local prosecutor’s office),” Martires said.

According to investigations, Martires said the victim was driving his motorcycle when he was waylaid by the suspect along the boundary of the city’s Barangays Buntun and Cataggaman, hitting the former on the right chest with a single .38 caliber bullet.

Panaligan was pronounced dead on arrival at the nearby Catholic Church-run Saint Paul Hospital due to the sustained gunshot wound.

“The suspect seems to have been waiting for the victim to pass by,” Martires said.

The suspect was reportedly harboring ill feelings against the victim for having an alleged relationship with his daughter although the latter was already married.

Reports said the suspect’s daughter, with whom Panaligan was allegedly having an affair, even saw him being gunned down by her father.

The incident came at a time while a gun ban is being imposed throughout Cagayan following the failed slay on Ting’s father, Mayor Delfin Ting in front of the family-owned Hotel Delfino along the city’s downtown on Nov. 15.   – With Raymund Catindig