Ex-Ecija mayor gunned down

JAEN, Nueva Ecija - Unidentified men gunned down an 82-year-old former mayor of this town early yesterday morning, in what is widely believed to be a politically motivated killing.

The victim, Felix Velarde, also a former provincial board member, was on his way home from the San Leonardo cockpit when the two gunmen, aboard an owner-type jeep with license plate PJE-941, fired at him.

Velarde died on the spot from gunshot wounds in the neck and chest. Police found two empty caliber .45 shells at the crime scene.

The murder occurred as the town's new police chief, Superintendent Genaro Macalanda, spent his first day in office yesterday.

It also came a week after the president of the town's Association of Barangay Captains (ABC), Arturo Nagum, 47, was killed by seven heavily armed men. Nagum had 18 gunshot wounds.

Nagum was said to be an ally of Velarde's rival, former mayor Antonio Prospero Esquivel, father of the incumbent mayor, Mark Anthony Esquivel.

Velarde is the second in his family to have been killed. In 1994, his son, Ricardo, then the ABC president, was shot dead.

Last year, two of the suspects in the young Velarde's killing surfaced and pointed to Esquivel as the alleged brains behind the murder.

Superintendent Aurelio Hiteroza, provincial police director, said probers are looking at political vendetta or an old grudge as possible motive for the elder Velarde's murder.

Police said the two gunmen were apparently monitoring the movements of Velarde, with a motorcycle-riding accomplice trailing the former mayor on his way to the cockpit.