QUEZON (Mindanao Examiner / 04 May) – Gunmen ambushed political supporters and campaigners of a northern Philippine town mayor Friday and killed six people.
The victims were in car when gunmen attacked them while crossing a river in Lagayan town, Mayor Cecilia Luna said.
Luna said she was not in the car, but those killed were all her relatives. “They thought maybe that I was in the car,” she said.
Three others were injured in the ambush, other reports said.
Luna, in a television interview, blamed her opponent, Abra governor Vicente Valera, for the attack. Both Valera and Luna are running in the same congressional district.
Valera was previously accused of masterminding the killing of Abra Rep. Luis Bersamin in Quezon City in December. Valera denied all allegations against him.
Luna said the Commission of Elections has not acted on her request for additional police security. She said she has been receiving death threats from her political rivals.
In Bulacan province, a government soldier was also killed in a shootout with supporters of the Cibac (Citizen's Battle Against Corruption) party list group. The firefight erupted in Bocaue town after Cibac supporters caught two army soldiers destroying campaign posters of the party list group.
The soldiers allegedly opened fire on the Cibac supporters who were mayoral candidate Eduardo Villanueva, Jr., triggering a firefight.
About a dozen other army soldiers were held by the police in connection with the firefight. It was unknown why the soldiers were removing the Cibac campaign posters, but the group’s leader, Eddie Villanueva, Sr., is a staunch critic of President Gloria Arroyo.
Other reports said the soldiers were supporters of former army General Jovito Palparan, who was accused by militant party list groups as behind the spate of killings of political activists. And that they were putting up campaign streamers for Palparan’s own party list group called “Bantay” (Watch).
Palparan is now running as congressman the Bantay party list.
Philippine military chief General Hermogenes Esperon has strongly warned soldiers not to engage in political partisan. (Mindanao Examiner)
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