Ilocos Sur mayor, Camarines Norte board candidate slain

Assassins’ bullets have felled a re-electionist Ilocos Sur mayor, an ally of Gov. Luis "Chavit" Singson, and a candidate for the provincial board of Camarines Norte, in the run-up to the May 14 elections.

In other developments:

• A leader of a congressional candidate in Samar was killed and another supporter was wounded in an ambush in Calbayog City yesterday.

• A former provincial board member of La Union, whose husband is seeking the mayoral post in Balaoan town, survived a slay attempt last Thursday morning. Her bodyguard was wounded.

• The Commission on Elections (Comelec) said yesterday it would place the towns of Sta. Lucia (Ilocos Sur) and Currimao (Ilocos Norte) as well as La Union and Agusan del Sur under its control.

• Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Leandro Mendoza ordered his men to solve all cases of election-related violence and neutralize all partisan armed groups.

To date, the PNP recorded at least 28 poll-related violent incidents nationwide, that have the claimed the lives of three candidates and brought injuries to seven others. The figures apparently do not include yesterday’s attacks.

Unidentified armed men gunned down Mayor Teodoro Hernaez of Sta. Lucia, Ilocos Sur while delivering a speech during a fiesta coronation rite in Barangay Namatican before midnight of April 18, police said.

Three others, including Hernaez’s brother, Rodolfo, a retired policeman, were killed in the attack. The two others were PO2 Robert Naungayan and PO3 William Agpalo, the mayor’s security escorts.

Policemen found 11 caliber .45 empty shells and two live bullets, and 14 9 mm empty shells at the crime scene.

Hernaez was seeking re-election under Singson’s Lakas-NUCD-Bileg party against his vice mayor, Romulo Garcia, of the Liberal Party-People Power Coalition.

The regional police have sent personnel to help Sta. Lucia investigators solve the case.

Superintendent Wendy Rosario, chief of the regional police’s operations and plans division, said communist rebels might have a hand in the killing since Sta. Lucia is a rebel-infested municipality.

Sta. Lucia, however, is not one of the nine Ilocos Sur towns tagged as areas of concern during the election period. The nine towns are Cabugao, Magsingal, Cauayan, Candon, Tagudin, Sto. Domingo, Sta. Catalina, Sta. Maria and Sta. Cruz.

Former Sta. Lucia mayor Pablo Festejo, Hernaez’s erstwhile political rival, also suspects that communist guerrillas could have killed the re-electionist mayor.

NPA eyed in Camarines slay

Meanwhile, in Camarines Norte, provincial board candidate Jose Bulalacao, 52, was shot dead by two assailants at about 1 a.m. yesterday, shortly after a campaign sortie in Sitio Malampayongan, Barangay Nakalaya in Jose Panganiban town.

Speculations are rife that the NPA could have liquidated Bulalacao, a former policeman reportedly listed in its "order of battle."

Bulalacao once served as provincial jail warden and deputy police chief of Jose Panganiban.

Bulalacao, who belonged to the Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP) ticket of re-electionist Gov. Jess Pimentel, was the second candidate slain in the Bicol region in less than a week.

Last Sunday, Felix Frayna, a mayoral candidate in Sta. Magdalena, Sorsogon, was riddled with bullets while speaking on a stage at the town proper.

Frayna was a three-term mayor of Sta. Magdalena until he retired in 1998, but decided on a comeback this year. He was a former Constabulary man.

Initial investigation showed Bulalacao had just come from a campaign sortie that ended at about midnight. He left his group and was about to get his motorcycle parked a few meters away when two men approached and shot him.

Bulalacao’s men saw the two assailants approached him but thought they just wanted to shake his hand.

Chief Superintendent Robert Delfin, newly installed Bicol police director, is convening a command conference today to discuss whether they need to request the Comelec to put Sorsogon and Camarines Norte under its control because of the killings.

Zacarias Zaragoza, regional Comelec director, said at least six people have been killed in Bicol since the start of the campaign period.

"The spate of political killings is one factor we have to seriously consider in putting a place under Comelec control," he said.

At least 426 barangays in Bicol have been identified as poll hot spots.

Investigators suspect that the killings had something to do with the candidates’ refusal to pay "campaign fees" being demanded by the NPA command in Bicol.

The fees amount to P75,000 to P100,000 for those seeking a provincial board seat, and P150,000 to P200,000 for a mayoral candidate.

Calbayog, La Union attacks

In Calbayog City, Samar, four armed men, wearing ski masks and black shirts, ambushed a political leader of first district congressional candidate Reynaldo Uy, the city’s last-term mayor, and two companions yesterday.

Uy’s political leader, Eduardo Niangga, 32, was killed, while his companion, Armando Calderon, 21, was seriously wounded. Niangga’s brother Marcelino was unhurt.

Reports said Niangga had just come from a campaign rally and was on his way home with his brother and Calderon aboard a motorcycle, when they were ambushed in Barangay Lo-oc, some 10 kilometers from the city proper.

Uy is pitted against Paz Tuazon, wife of last-term Rep. Rodolfo Tuazon who, in turn, is running for Calbayog City mayor.

Last March 26, Robert Gulla, a leader of a mayoral bet, was shot dead by four motorcycle-riding gunmen while crossing a bridge in downtown Calbayog City. His companion, Renato Verano, was wounded.

Police said Gulla’s attackers were NPA guerrillas.

In Balaoan, La Union, former provincial board member Natividad Ledda, wife of come—backing former mayor Casiano Ledda, was en route to the public market at about 5:30 a.m. last Thursday when two men fired at her and her bodyguard, Paulino Turia, 51.

Mrs. Ledda was unhurt, but Turia sustained two gunshot wounds in the right leg.

Police arrested two suspects who were later turned over to the regional police command at Camp Oscar Florendo.

Last Tuesday, communist rebels admitted killing Lope Asis, the re-electionist mayor of Bayugan, Agusan del Sur, who was shot while shaking hands with the crowd who attended his miting de avance.

An hour later, Asis’ rival, Rufino Amora, and his son were also gunned down.

Six people, five of them candidates for local posts, were abducted in Bayugan and Lapaz, another Agusan del Sur town.

Mendoza’s orders

Mendoza issued yesterday a four-point directive to police commanders nationwide to ensure honest, peaceful and orderly elections on May 14, during a top-level command conference at Camp Crame yesterday.

Besides solving cases of poll-related violence and neutralizing armed partisan groups, at least 99 of them in Mindanao, Mendoza directed police chiefs to prosecute violators of election regulations and initiate peace covenants among rival political groups.

He also ordered Director Edgar Aglipay, PNP operations director, to closely monitor the peace and order situation in 34 cities and towns tagged as "areas of immediate concern" and 554 other cities and towns identified as "areas of concern," 298 of which have intense political rivalries. — With Myds Supnad, Teddy Molina, Celso Amo, Pia Lee-Brago, Christina Mendez and Ulysses Torres Sabuco