During daughter's Graduation lone gunman kills Samar village chief

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines  – A female village chief of a town in Samar was shot to death while her 20-year-old daughter was slightly wounded when a lone gunman attacked the two immediately after the graduation rites at Northwest Samar State University in Calbayog City on the night of April 5.

Superintendent Nestor Valenzuela, chief of the Calbayog City Police, told The Freeman that the victims were Barangay Captain Myra Doren of the island-town of Almagro in Samar province and her daughter Anna Marie Añana who was graduating from college at that time.

Valenzuela said it was about 6:30 p.m. when the lone gun man, wearing a cap and a bonnet, suddenly approached the victims and fired his .45 caliber pistol at close range around 20 meters from the main gate of the university campus.

Doren sustained three bullet wounds on her right and left chests. She was rushed to the Calbayog City District Hospital where she expired three hours later. Her daughter was hit on her right leg, but is now out of danger after being treated in the same hospital.

The suspect was already identified early last night, but Valenzuela said he is temporarily withholding the identity to the media to avoid jeopardizing the ongoing investigation. "We finally identified the suspect, but ... we are still in the process of our investigation. Hopefully we can file the criminal charges against him anytime this week," he said.

A police task force is now conducting the investigation, which is focused on extracting some information and evidences that would determine the possible motive of the crime, one of which maybe political grudge, said Valenzuela.

Doren ran and won in the 2010 elections after her husband Benjamin, who was on his second term as brgy. captain of Mabuhay in Almagro town, was also killed by still unidentified assailants during the debut of their other daughter in September last year.

Calbayog City Mayor Reynaldo Uy ordered the Calbayog Police to resolve immediately the case, which victims he said were his political supporters. He requested for more policemen to be deployed to the city to stop the killings there and arrest the perpetrators.

"I’m condemning this another incident of extra-legal killing of my supporters. Doren was one of my supporter who led the signature campaign of the recall petition against Samar Governor Sheree Ann Tan Delos Santos and Vice Governor Stephen Tan," Uy told The Freeman. (FREEMAN)