2 ex-soldiers charged in slay of vice mayor’s brod

TUGUEGARAO CITY , Philippines– Police have filed murder charges before the Department of Justice against two former Army soldiers for the July 3 killing of a village councilman-brother of the vice mayor of Pamplona, Cagayan.

Senior Superintendent Gregorio Lim, Cagayan police director, withheld the identities of the two suspects who allegedly gunned down Barangay Cabaggan councilman Edmund Ifurung, younger brother of Vice Mayor Edwin Ifurung.

According to police reports, the younger Ifurung was resting in front of his gasoline station when two of three ski mask-wearing men alighted from a motorcycle and fired at him several times with .45-caliber pistols.

Ifurung died from 13 bullet wounds, and his killers took his .45-caliber pistol before fleeing, police said.

Two helpers at the gasoline station recognized the killers but refused to cooperate with investigators, as they feared for their safety because the gunmen are believed to be “henchmen” of a “big personality,” said Senior Inspector Mario Tuliao, Pamplona police chief.

Tuliao said Ifurung had been cleared of alleged involvement in drug trafficking and gun-for-hire activities before he was absorbed in the police and military intelligence communities.

Tuliao said they were looking into Ifurung’s latest tussle with a Chinese black sand mining company from which he seized supposedly hot timber being used to construct its office in his jurisdiction.