Quezon province village chief bet hurt in shooting

GENERAL LUNA, Quezon, Philippines — A candidate for barangay captain in the Oct. 30 barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections (BSKE) in this town was wounded in a gun attack on Thursday.

Police said Ruben Ilagan, 62, an incumbent council member in Barangay Malaya, had just come from a meeting near the barangay hall when he was shot by an unidentified man who waited for him in a dark portion of the road at around 9:20 p.m.

Ilagan suffered a gunshot wound in the chest. He remains confined in a hospital.

Mayor Matt Erwin Florido condemned the attack, saying “there is no place for this kind of violence.”

Officials of the municipal government and Commission on Elections (Comelec) held a meeting with the police Election Related Incident Validation committee to determine if the shooting is related to the BSKE.

Two police teams were deployed to provide security to the victim at the hospital.

Negros Oriental imposes curfew

Meanwhile, a curfew will be imposed in the entire province of Negros Oriental at 10 p.m. today until 4 a.m. on Sunday and at 10 p.m. on Sunday to 4 a.m. on Monday.

Violators will be detained for the duration of the curfew hours, according to a statement issued by the Central Visayas Regional Joint Security Coordinating Center.

The RJSCC 7 is composed of members of the Comelec, Philippine Army, Philippine National Police and Philippine Coast Guard.

Negros Oriental had been placed under Comelec control due to recent violent incidents, incuding the killing of governor Roel Degamo.

Negros Occidental is not imposing a curfew, but a liquor ban will be implemented on Oct. 29, provincial Comelec supervisor Ian Lee Ananoria said.

Fifty-one barangays in Negros Occidental have been classified as election hot spots, three of them under ”red” category or areas of grave concern.

More than 4,000 policemen and soldiers have been deployed to secure the BSKE in Negros Occidental.

In Kalinga, police information officer Capt. Rufino Manganip credited the traditional customs of indigenous communities for the peaceful election period.

Manganip said many of the candidates in Kalinga are relatives and do not want to hold grudges because of the elections.

He said there is only one barangay in the province considered as a poll hot spot. This is in Lubuagan town, where there is an ongoing tribal conflict.

Meanwhile, the 6th Infantry Division (ID) will deploy 273 new soldiers to augment Army units in the Bangsamoro Autononous Region in Muslim Mindanao and Soccsksargen.

Maj. Gen. Alex Rillera, 6th ID commander, said the soldiers had just finished their training at the military unit‘s headquarters in Datu Odin Sinsuat, Maguindanao del Norte.

3,101 C. Luzon bets get show-cause orders

Meanwhile, Comelec-Central Luzon office spokesman and assistant director Elmo Duque said 3,101 candidates were issued show-cause orders for alleged election offenses as of yesterday.

In an interview over Newsline 103.1 FM, Duque said four cases of vote buying were also filed.

Bulacan provincial election supervisor Mona Ann Aldana-Campos said 600 of the show-cause orders were issued to candidates in the province.

Duque said notices to suspend proclamation have been sent to barangay board of canvassers where there are candidates with disqualification cases.

Only one barangay has been classified as an area of grave concern in Central Luzon. This is in Barangay San Francisco in Laur, Nueva Ecija, where there was a recent encounter between government troopers and communist rebels. — Ed Amoroso, Artemio Dumlao, John Unson, Ramon Efren Lazaro