Pangasinan vice mayor, driver shot dead

MAPANDAN, Pangasinan — This town’s vice mayor, together with his driver, was gunned down some 10 meters away from the municipal hall and police compound last Wednesday night.

The gunslaying of Vice Mayor Adolfo Aquino, 56, and his driver, Victor Villanueva, 37, prompted Philippine National Police chief Director General Arturo Lomibao, who flew here yesterday to assess the investigation, to relieve the entire 24-man Mapandan police force, including Chief Inspector Reynaldo Tamondong, the municipal police chief.

Aquino, who was attacked after presiding over a regular session of the municipal council, sustained multiple gunshot wounds, while Villanueva was hit in the abdomen.

Aquino’s staffer Jun Mejia, who was with the victims when the incident happened at about 6:30 p.m. in front of the municipal auditorium, rushed the vice mayor to the Mapandan Community Hospital where doctors declared him dead on arrival. Villanueva was brought to the Region 1 Medical Center in Dagupan City where he died hours later.

The police found four slugs and seven empty shells of caliber .45 ammunition at the crime scene.

Mejia told The STAR that no policeman immediately responded to the incident.

Aquino’s brother Dabby, who was in a nearby store, tried to run after the gunman, but he was fired at. Luckily, the gun misfired and the bullet merely dropped to the ground.

Lomibao told reporters that he has formed Task Force Aquino, headed by Superintendent Edgar Basbas, deputy provincial police director, "to investigate and to leave no stone unturned so that this will be solved as soon as possible."

The task force will be assisted by the regional units of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Crime Laboratory and Intelligence Group.

Lomibao said he has asked the task force to submit a report within three days so he can update the authorities about the progress of the investigation.

With the "administrative relief" of the entire Ma—pandan police force, the municipal police will be manned by members of the First Provincial Mobile Group under Superintendent Edgar Basbas.

Lomibao said he has the authority to "administratively relieve" anybody with or without cause and to give way to an impartial investigation.

The relieved Mapandan policemen will undergo a two-week refresher course.

"This is deplorable in a peaceful town like Mapandan," Lomi—bao said.

He said police probers were looking at all angles in the killing. "We don’t like to make any conclusions at this point," he said.

But Aquino’s widow Eden, 57, a cashier at the finance department of the Department of Education’s Region 4 office, said she suspects politics behind her husband’s killing.

"Araw-araw, sabi ko sa kanya mag-ingat siya... Mainit ang pulitika dito, kahit pa noong eleksyon. Tanungin ninyo ang taongbayan dito, sasabihin nila, alam nila lahat (Everyday, I would tell him to take care of himself... Politics is too hot here, even during the elections. Ask the townsfolk, they will tell you everything)," she said.

Mrs. Aquino said her husband was supposed to go to the United States yesterday, but he opted to attend the town council’s regular session last Wednesday afternoon.

Mapandan Mayor Jose Ferdi—nand Calimlim condemned Aquino’s killing and asked the townsfolk to stay calm.

Calimlim and Aquino used to be running mates in the 2001 elections, but parted ways a month before the 2004 polls.

"We have political differences. That’s natural in any town and political structure, but we have the same goals for our town," he said. — With Cesar Ramirez and Cecille Suerte Felipe