KORONADAL CITY (PNA) – Mayor Bernie Palencia of Polomolok, South Cotabato offered a P500,000 reward on Monday, March 20, for anybody who can provide information on the whereabouts of the culprits behind the attack on his executive assistant on Friday, March 17. Palencia told reporters he could have been the target of the two gunmen who shot his aide Rhyolite Agregado Balili, 49, a former municipal councilor, at close range. “I believed I was the target,” Palencia told reporters on Monday. Balili was driving his car and was about to enter the town hall premises in Barangay Poblacion when he was shot by two motorcycle-riding gunmen. He sustained bullet wounds in various parts of his body, according to Polomolok police chief, Lt. Col. Joseph Forro III. Forro said the victim remains in an undisclosed hospital in neighboring General Santos City. The mayor said the shooting of Balili could be politically motivated. “These could be the handiwork of my political arch rivals; they are sending a message,” he said in the vernacular, without naming names. Palencia said he was told that two men selling roasted peanuts were seen taking videos of him during the opening program of the Women’s Month celebration. Forro said no one has claimed responsibility for the attack, adding that security measures are in place to prevent similar incidents in the future. Last January, three members of the Civil Security Unit of the Polomolok local government unit, including a former police major serving as its chief, were separately killed by still unknown perpetrators.