By Nestor Abrematea
TACLOBAN CITY, Leyte - Calbayog City, Samar Mayor Ronald P. Aquino has condemned the latest killing of a barangay chairman in his city.
(PIXABAY / MANILA BULLETIN)
Aquino identified the victim as Mark Anthony Giray chairman of Barangay Cagmanipi, who was driving his motorcycle on their way home with Boyet Dura when they were shot by a still unidentified gunmen on Friday at around 6 p.m.
Aquino said Giray just came from his office at the Calbayog City Hall and asked financial assistance to settle the hospital bill of the victim's grandson when ambushed by the still unidentified armed men.
Giray and Dura were pronounced dead on arrival at a Calbayog hospital after they were rushed immediately after the incident.
Investigators of the Calbayog City Police Office recovered at the scene at least 25 bullet shells for an M16 rifle and a caliber .45 pistol.
"I am condemning the killing of barangay officials to the highest degree. It is unhuman to kill people just because of politics," Aquino told The Manila Bulletin.
Before the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections on May 14, 2018, Calbayog City has been declared by the Commission on Elections as election area of concern because of the tense political situation in the city between the camps of Mayor Aquino and Samar Vice Gov. Christopher James T. Tan.
Two barangay chairmen and some candidates for barangay positions in Calbayog City were shot dead before the elections and some candidates in several interior areas of Calbayog refused to return home for threats to their lives.