2 barangay heads slain in Abra, Batangas

MANILA, Philippines - With the barangay elections barely five weeks away, a village chief was shot dead by motorcycle-riding men in Pidigan town in Abra on Tuesday, the third barangay head slain in northeast Luzon.

On Tuesday night, another village chief, this time in Batangas, was killed in an ambush also by motorcycle-riding men. 

Alfredo Madriaga, 54, of Barangay San Diego, Pidigan town, died of multiple bullet wounds. However, Alfredo Blando, driver of the motorcycle he was on board, was unscathed.

Senior Inspector Paul Benjamin Mandane, Pidigan police chief, said Madriaga had just come from a forum on the forthcoming barangay polls organized by the municipal election office when he was attacked. 

Police recovered 12 empty .45-caliber shells at the crime scene.

In Batangas, Nemensio Atasan, 48, chairman of Barangay Tuy, was driving his car on the interior road in another village when he was waylaid Tuesday night, killing him on the spot.

Police arrested one of Atasan’s suspected assailants, a certain Marjun Anchorez, during a hot pursuit operation.

Police records show that Anchorez was also tagged in another killing in November 2009 and a robbery in 2010, both in Batangas. – Teddy Molina, Raymund Catindig, Charlie Lagasca, Artemio Dumlao, Ed Amoroso