TALIBON, BOHOL, Philippines – After the killing of a candidate for councilor in Buenavista town last week, unidentified motorcycle-riding assailants shot to death incumbent Councilor Gerchon Dulang at his business establishment in Barangay Tanghaligue of this northeastern town of Talibon, police reports said.
Talibon Mayor Restituto Auxtero, in an interview, confirmed to The Freeman the killing of Dulang, but he refused to speculate on the motive of the killing because he was still waiting for the official report of the investigators.
The report said that two men, riding in a Honda XRM motorcycle, gunned down Dulang in early evening of March 23 (Saturday) at his gasoline station in that barangay. Several empty shells of 9mm and .45-caliber bullets were recovered by the probers.
Dulang did not make to the hospital here alive due to numerous gunshots to his body, the mayor said, adding that initial reports immediately ruled out politics as the motive of the killing but more of a business-related matter.
The councilor was having a multi-million business of silica and other earth materials extraction in Tanghaligue for supply of washed sand as construction materials.
The murder of Dulang, who was vying for another term as municipal councilor, was the second killing incident of politician in Bohol this month.
The first was 48-year-old Percival Sebua, who was running for councilor of Buenavista town under incumbent Mayor Lowel Tirol’s slate in the May 13 elections.
Sebua, on his way to his rice farm in Brgy. Bonotbonot last March 17, was gunned down by three unidentified armed men who was pursuing him at the time, a separate police report said.
The town of Buenavista was already placed under the Comelec’s election watchlist category due to “intense political rivalry.†Others in the list were Trinidad, Carmen and Danao towns, and Tagbilaran City. (FREEMAN)