Politics, revenge eyed in ex-barangay chief’s murder

MANILA, Philippines — Investigators are looking into politics and revenge as among the motives for the killing of a former barangay chairman in Sta. Cruz, Manila on Thursday, the Manila Police District said yesterday.

Barangay 365, Zone 37 kagawad Elpidio “Peter” Bautista was gunned down by two men in front of his house on M. Hizon Street just before 4 p.m.

Closed-circuit television footage showed two men attacking the victim a few minutes after his wife, barangay chair Raymunda Bautista, and several teachers stepped inside their house, Senior Police Officer 3 Jonathan Bautista said.

The assailants were seen “casing the victim as early as before lunchtime,” the investigator said.

The victim was a three-term barangay chairman and slid down to kagawad in the last barangay polls in favor of his wife, who refused to comment during the investigation.

A relative told police the victim was charged with murder in 2009 but it was unclear what happened to the case, the investigator said.

The victim was also linked to the killing of Barangay 349 chairman Oliver Franco in 2015 by Rogelio Villamor, who confessed to the murder.

Villamor claimed the victim and another barangay chairman hatched the plan to kill Franco over politics.