Cagayan council candidate found dead

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya, Philippines – A businessman running for municipal councilor was found dead with a bullet wound in the head in a family-owned gasoline station in Santa Ana, Cagayan yesterday.

Initial reports said the victim, Jean Marie Ponce, 23, was a grandson of Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. But Enrile denied that they were blood relatives, although he said he knew the Ponce family.

Enrile, who also hails from Cagayan, expressed his sympathy to the Ponce clan and asked his province mates to allow them to mourn the Santa Ana council bet’s death.

Ponce was found lifeless in the boardroom on the second floor of the Phoenix gasoline station, adjacent to another family-owned meat shop and call center in Barangay Santa Cruz, Santa Ana town.

Text reports from the regional police based in Tuguegarao City quoted Senior Inspector Emil Pajarillo, Santa Ana police chief, as saying that Ponce had a gunshot wound in the upper left part of the ear with the bullet exiting through the right temple.

The Santa Ana police responded after receiving a cell phone call from provincial board member Alphonse Jean Ponce about a firing incident at the gasoline station.

But the lawmen soon learned that Ponce had already been brought to the town’s Saint Anthony’s Hospital where he was pronounced dead on arrival.

The victim is reportedly a close relative of the board member, who is running for Santa Ana mayor. The board member is a son of Jose Marie Ponce, chief executive officer of the state-run Cagayan Economic Zone Authority based in Santa Ana.

The victim reportedly ran several business interests in the economic zone.

Senior Superintendent Gregorio Notto Lim, Cagayan police director, citing initial reports, said the victim died of a .40-caliber bullet wound in the head due to accidental firing.

“Definitely there are neither findings nor hints that there was someone who shot the victim or the latter committed suicide… Everything is still sketchy as to the victim’s personal (circumstances),” Lim said. – With Christina Mendez