Retired Leyte town municipal administrator shot dead

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — A sister of Mayor Remedio Veloso of San Isidro, Leyte was killed in a gun attack in Kananga, Leyte on Wednesday.

Juanita Veloso, 77, a former municipal government administrator, suffered five gunshot wounds and died at the scene.

Forty bullets shells for guns of still unknown calibers were recovered at the scene.

The victim was in her Land Cruiser when unidentified men in another vehicle opened fire. Her driver and two companions were unhurt.

Brig. Gen. Rommel Marbil, Eastern Visayas police director, ordered a thorough investigation into the killing.

Pursuit operations for the suspects are underway.

“I have ordered an extensive investigation. We have to go for evidence,” he said.

Marbil said probers are not ruling out politics as the motive for the killing.

“The gunmen might have thought the mayor was also in the backseat of the vehicle which he owns, but it was his sister, a senior citizen, who was seated there,” he said.