UNIDENTIFIED motorcycle gunmen shot dead a defeated mayoral candidate of Lambayong town in Sultan Kudarat province, police said Monday.
Lt. Col. Aldrin Gonzales, spokesperson of Police Regional Office–12, identified the slain victim as Edgar Lucero, 53, who ran for mayor during the May 2019 elections but lost.
Lucero was on a motorcycle with his two children on Saturday and heading home from Tacurong City when the gunmen shot him several times at around 9:30 a.m. along a national highway in the village of Didtaras. “His (Lucero) children, although they sustained bruises, were spared by the gunmen,” Gonzales said in a radio interview. “He died instantaneously from five gunshot wounds in the head and body.”
Police investigators found shells for .45-caliber pistol at the crime site.
Lucero’s teenage children told the police that the gunmen wore masks, making it difficult for them to identify them.
The slain politician ran for mayor of Lambayong during the past two elections but failed twice in his bid. Relatives said he had been receiving death threats in the past several months but ignored them for he had no known enemies.
Lambayong Mayor Ferdinand Agduma condemned the attack on Lucero and urged police to dig deeper into the case and establish more checkpoints along the Tacurong City-Lambayong Road. (Edwin Fernandez)
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