CEBU CITY -- A 33-year-old man driving a campaign vehicle is now in critical condition after he was shot by still unidentified gunmen on Friday afternoon.
Police identified the victim as Rad Andrade, who sustained multiple gunshot wounds in the body.
The victim was rushed to a hospital in Cebu City.
The incident happened around 4 p.m. in Barangay Liloan, Santander town, Cebu.
According to S/Sgt. Dante Deniega, the victim was driving a campaign vehicle, an elf van, when gunmen aboard a sedan fired shots at him.
With the victim inside the vehicle were the victim’s sibling and three other minors. The passengers were unscathed, police said.
Printed on the vehicle which the victim was driving are the faces of Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia and Provincial Board Member Tata Salvador.
Garcia is seeking reelection while Salvador is running for congressman in the province’s second district.
Police Col. Engelbert Soriano, chief of the Cebu Provincial Police Office, said investigation is ongoing to check if the incident can be considered election-related.
Soriano said the victim is not a government employee nor a worker of a candidate.
Soriano said investigators are checking reports that the victim got into trouble with other supporters of a politician.
Lawyer Jerome Brillantes, acting election supervisor of the Commission on Election-Cebu, said they would wait for the result of the police investigation before the agency can categorize whether or not the incident is election-related.