CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY – Unidentified gunmen barged in a house early Saturday and killed a politician running for mayor in the southern Filipino province of Bukidnon, reports said.
It said at least 10 gunmen stormed the house of Armando Ceballos in the town of Lantapan and peppered him with bullets. The raiders escaped after the killing.
Ceballos was running independently against Ernie Devibar, of the political party called Bukidnon Paglaum. Police were investigating the killing and would not say whether the attack was politically motivated or carried out by communist insurgents who are actively operating in the province.
Police recovered many bullet shells believed fired from an M14 and M16 automatic rifles. It did not say whether Ceballos was alone in the house at the time of the attack. No individual or group claimed responsibility for the murder.
Zamboanga Peninsula
In Zamboanga Peninsula, villagers have reported that armed goons, some of them pro-government militias, had been harassing them into voting for some politicians in the provinces.
In the towns of Tampilisan, Godod and Polanco, many civilians have moved out from their villages due to the presence of gunmen.
But in Buug town in Zamboanga del Sur province, armed men were spotted hanging around on a roadside store. They were brandishing automatic weapons and pistols. A video of the gunmen, some of them were just wearing slippers and clad in denim pants and t-shirts, were spotted at Alimanza Store.
The video clip was posted on Facebook and could be accessed on this URL: https://www.facebook.com/100008827306765/videos/1547164145587814/.
It was not immediately known why the police and military failed to detect the presence of the gunmen in the town.
ARMM
Meanwhile, tension is running high in the provinces of Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao – both in the restive Muslim autonomous region, after supporters of warring politicians threatened each other ahead of Monday’s elections.
Liberal Party Gov. Esmael Mangudadatu of Maguindanao is running against an influential politician, Datu Ali Midtimbang, who is allied with the equally powerful Ampatuan clan under the United Nationalist Alliance.
Mangudadatu publicly promised a victory at all cost for presidential candidate Mar Roxas, while Midtimbang is campaigning for Vice President Jejomar Binay, also a presidential aspirant.
While in Lanao del Sur, Gov. Bombit Adiong, also a Liberal Party member and on his last term, is campaigning too for Roxas, but the province is a known bailiwick of Davao City Mayor and presidential candidate Rodrigo Duterte, of the PDP-Laban Party.
Adiong is running for vice governor with his elderly mother, Soraya, as the governor against Marawi City Mayor Fahad Salic, who survived a recent ambush in Cagayan de Oro City.Both Mangudadatu and Adiong are known political lords in their province. (Mindanao Examiner)
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