LP candidate, supporter killed in Mindanao

PAGADIAN CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / January 18, 2010) – Gunmen shot dead two people who were a supporter and candidate of the Liberal Party in the southern Philippines.

The two were identified as Motalliden Tapodoc, a Liberal Party candidate for councillor in the May elections, in the town of Labangan in Zamboanga del Sur, and Hamira Agcong, a supporter, in separate attacks in Pagadian City.

Tapodoc, 35, was killed Sunday by two motorcycle gunmen near the Philippine Independent Church in Pagadian City. The victim was shot seven times.

The attack occurred after an unidentified gunman also shot and killed Agcong, 44, in front of her sick son late Saturday. Agcong was buying medicine for her son when she was shot three times in the chest.

It was unknown whether the attacks were related or not, or if they were politically-motivated, but the twin murders raised to four the number of Liberal Party supporters murdered since last year.

Two gunmen also shot and killed Marciliano Dizon, a Liberal party supporter and political coordinator for the Noynoy Aquino (Senator Benigno Aquino) for President Movement (NAPM), in a recent attack in Mexico town in Pampanga province while visiting the funeral of a friend.

Last November, an LP volunteer, lawyer Connie Brizuela, was brutally killed along with 56 people, including 31 journalists, in Maguindanao province in an attack on a political caravan by the gunmen allegedly led by Datu Unsay town mayor Andal Ampatuan Jr. (Mindanao Examiner)