Ex-village chief in Abra capital in critical condition after gun attack

BAGUIO CITY— A former village chief is fighting for his life at the hospital after he was shot by still unidentified gunmen in Sitio Ramramot, Barangay San Antonio in Bangued, Abra’s capital town on Thursday night, August 29.

Former Banacao barangay chairman Marcelino Castillo Banayos, 58, and a construction worker Janssen Benauro Blanes, 20, both from Barangay Banacao, Bangued, were waylaid while on board a white pick-up truck at around 6:30 p.m. Thursday, some 100 meters from a police detachment and the Mudeng bridge.

Initial investigation bared that a black vehicle overtook them and gunmen immediately fired prompting the former barangay chairman’s vehicle to crash into the rice fields.

Authorities added that the gunmen made a U-turn and then fired again at the former barangay chairman’s vehicle before fleeing toward Barangay Mudeng in La Paz town, also in Abra.

Responding policemen moments later rushed the two to the Abra Provincial Hospital for medical treatment. 

Banayos who was driving the pick-up truck sustained multiple gunshot wounds on the left portion of his back and neck, while Blanes sustained gunshot wounds on his left arm and head.