Losing mayoral bet gunned down

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines  – Another killing incident over the week involving a defeated mayoralty bet in last year’s polls in Cagayan has further marred the province’s peace and order condition.

Reports identified the victim as Lyndon “Bong” Perez Obispo, 43, former councilor of Peñablanca town, who succumbed to gunshot wounds minutes after he was shot by an armed suspect in adjacent Tuguegarao City about 10:30 a.m. Sunday. The killing of Obispo, the town’s Liberal Party chairman, was the second incident to take place in the northernmost mainland province in almost a week following the shooting to death of a councilman, also in that northern city.  

Obispo ran for mayor of said town under then presidential bet Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino’s LP in last year’s national elections. He, however, lost to reelectionist Mayor Marilyn Julia Taguinod. According to lawyer Catherine Allas, Cagayan election supervisor, Obispo has no pending election protest in connection with any elections in the province.

“We deplore these senseless killings taking place in Cagayan. (Obispo) was shot dead in broad daylight (in spite of the) temporary suspension of permits to carry firearms in the province,” said former Cagayan third district congressman Manuel Mamba, the LP provincial chairman and member of the party’s national executive committee.

Mamba, who himself lost in the gubernatorial race against incumbent Alvaro Antonio of the Enrile-backed Team Cagayan, described Obispo as “anti-corruption and anti-illegal logging crusader.”

“At the time of his death, Obispo has filed several cases against corrupt officials in the province, which are pending before the courts. He is the 15th LP leader in Cagayan killed since the second quarter of last year,” said Mamba.

Senior Superintendent Mao Aplasca, Cagayan police director, said that the incident took place inside an agricultural supply store in the city’s downtown area, particularly along Blumentritt Street. Reports indicated that Obispo was buying feeds inside the establishment when the suspect casually went near him and shot him twice at the back with a .45 caliber pistol, with the bullets piercing through his chest. “He was rushed to the nearby People’s General Hospital but was pronounced dead on arrival,” Aplasca said.

Recovered from the crime scene were two empty bullet shells, two slugs and live round of ammunition, all .45 caliber. Aplasca said they are still investigating the incident, which came almost a week after councilman Marvellon Baltazar, 36, of Solana town’s Carilucud Village, was shot dead by a still unknown suspect along a road in the city’s Pengue Ruyu Village on May 9.

Police said Baltazar was riding on a rented jeepney going to visit relatives in Gonzaga town when the motorcycle-riding gunman in ski mask and black jacket suddenly shot him twice with a .45 caliber pistol.

These twin killings came amid the ongoing Camp Crame-imposed gun ban, which took effect in November last year following the failed slay on Tuguegarao City Mayor Delfin Ting as well as other previous killing incidents marring Cagayan in recent years. It also came on the eve of the preparation for the scheduled visit of Philippine National Police chief Director General Raul Bacalzo to Cagayan yesterday to assess the peace and order situation in the area following last Thursday’s encounter between police elements and communist rebels in the province’s remote southwestern area.

That encounter resulted in the death of at least five New People’s Army rebels, including Jose Asco, alias Ka Baylon, whom authorities identified as the leader of Cagayan’s Danilo Ben Command.