Task force to go after Cagayan leader's killers

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines  – A task force to go after the killer and possible brains behind last Sunday’s killing of a municipal head of the Liberal Party (LP) in Cagayan has been formed amid reports that politics has something to do with the slay.

The task force came as an offshoot of the killing of Lyndon “Bong” Perez Obispo, also a former Peñablanca town councilor, who was shot dead in Cagayan’s Tuguegarao City capital in broad daylight last May 15.

Obispo, 43, also ran as mayor of the town under the LP in last year’s national and local elections. He, however, lost to incumbent Mayor Marilyn Julia Taguinod.

Led by Senior Superintendent Mao Aplasca, Cagayan police director, the Task Force Obispo is composed of various police units from the provincial police office, Scene of the Crime Operatives and Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

“In all likelihood, we will be able to consolidate evidence gathered and come out with a detailed cartographic description of the gunman soon. So far, nothing is conclusive yet,” Aplasca said.

Beside, politics which Obispo’s family and allies believe to be the culprit behind his killing, probers are also considering the possibility of personal motive in the incident.

Aplasca, however, admitted that they have yet to gather enough evidence to connect politics to Obispo’s slay as probers said that such a motive is being zeroed in since the victim was a politician.

“(Politics) is one of the motives being considered by our investigators, however there’s still no evidence by which we can link politics to the killing,” he said.

Earlier, former Cagayan third district representative Manuel Mamba, LP provincial chairman and concurrently the party’s national executive committee member, described Obispo’s slay as senseless.

“He was a relentless anti-corruption and anti-illegal logging advocate. His killing came at a time that he had filed several cases against alleged corrupt officials of the province which are pending before the courts,” Mamba said.