Ilocos Sur village leader gunned down

BAGUIO CITY, Philippines – Motorcycle-riding gunmen ambushed and killed an Ilocos Sur town village leader Wednesday morning.

Newly elected barangay chairman Antonio Laranang Valdez, 55, of barangay Salingcub, Santiago town, Ilocos Sur was waylaid by gunmen along the national highway in front of the Jesus of Latter Day Saints church in barangay Dan-ar, also of the same town at around 8:3 a.m. The vicitm was on his way to preside over  a barangay meeting.

Laranang was rushed to the Candon General Hospital in Candon City but the village chief who sustained two gunshot wounds on his neck did not reach the medical center alive.

Santiago town police said the gunmen used a caliber .45 firearm in the attack, while probers recovered one empty shell of the same caliber where the village leader was shot. - Artemio A. Dumlao