Pangasinan Vice Mayor is 56th
Slain Bayan Muna Member
Violence against progresive party-list groups continues as the number of
their members and supporters killed this year has reached 56 since April
2001. The latest victim was no less than the vice mayor of a town in
Pangasinan, 200 kms north of Manila.
BY JHONG DELA CRUZ
Northern Dispatch
Posted by Bulatlat
MAPANDAN, Pangasinan
— The second highest municipal official here (200 kms north of Manila) was
killed last July 6 and it is not surprising for mainstream media to cover
this. An important detail, however, was not highlighted. The murdered
official happened to be a member of Bayan Muna (BM or people first)
party-list group.
Mapandan Vice Mayor
Adolfo Aquino, 56, was shot dead by an unidentified assailant shortly
after presiding over the Municipal Council session and talking to some
townmates at around 6:35 p.m. Police reports said Aquino sustained seven
bullet wounds.
His driver, Victor
Villanueva, tried to nab the assailant and was shot on the chest. He died
while undergoing a surgery in a hospital in Dagupan City.
According to Michael
Morden, Bayan Muna Provincial Coordinator, Aquino is the 56th BM member
killed since April 2001 and the 10th this year. He ran and eventually won
his second term as vice mayor in the 2004 local election.
"The crime scene is
about 30 meters from the police station. A single gunshot should have
alerted the police but it took 10 minutes for the police to respond," said
Eden Aquino, the victim’s wife. She said that her husband was set to leave
for Los Angeles last July 7 for a family reunion.
Eden also criticized
the local police for being slow in their pursuit of the lone assassin. She
said that her brother-in-law and her husband's supporters were the ones
who immediately ran after the assailant.
Supt. Edgar Basbas,
provincial deputy director and chair of the newly-formed Task Force Aquino,
said that details of their investigation would not be disclosed in order
not to preempt the investigation. The entire police force was sacked
including its chief, Insp. Reynaldo Tamondong, on orders of Philippine
National Police (PNP) Director-General Arturo Lomibao. Tamondong was
replaced by Insp. Efren Serenilla.
"His death is the
death of democracy in Mapandan. His installation had put a light to a
democratic rein in the town which has long been ruled by a powerful
political clan," Morden said.
An initial report of
the BM’s fact-finding mission revealed that nights before the incident, an
unidentified man asked townsfolk about the exits of the cemetery where, on
the day of the killing, the assailant ran to and rode on a motorcycle
driven by a companion.
Eden stressed that
the killing was purely political. "You ask the townspeople and they know
who killed my husband." Bulatlat
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