Zambo town mayor links killings to politics

ZAMBOANGA DEL SUR, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / January 27, 2010) – A southern Philippine town mayor on Wednesday said assassins are targeting his relatives and political supporters after gunmen killed three cousins in separate attacks in Zamboanga del Sur province.

Labangan town mayor Abubakar Afdal said the killings were purely political aimed at weakening his hold in the province. “The killings are an act perpetrated by evil persons,” he told the regional newspaper, the Mindanao Examiner.

Gunmen had killed the mayor’s cousins Rascal Afdal, Hanira Agcong and Steve Tapodoc, who was running foe a seat in the town’s council. They were all gunned town by motorcycle gunmen in separate attacks this month.

Afdal believed the killing of his supporters is being perpetrated to end his clout in Labangan, one of the vote-rich municipalities in Zamboanga del Sur.

Police said family feud could be the motive behind the killings, but the mayor disputed this and said the murders were political. “I believed these killings are connected to politics and not family feud,” Afdal said. (Becky de Asis)