Slain Maguindanao vice mayor was Ampatuan poll bet

BARIRA, Maguindanao, Philippines – Slain Vice Mayor Alexander Tomawis was supposed to be the candidate for governor of Maguindanao of the Ampatuan clan in the 2013 elections.

However, relatives of Toma­wis are reluctant to connect his murder to the elections three years from now.

Tomawis is known in Maguindanao as an adopted son of detained former Maguindanao governor Andal Ampatuan Sr.

Sources from the Ampatuan clan said Tomawis was being groomed to run for Maguindanao governor in 2013.

“He was our last hope,” said a local official in Shariff Aguak, the victim’s hometown. “We know he can stand for us.”

The Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police urged yesterday relatives of Tomawis against speculating on the circumstances surrounding his death and let the Davao City police determine the identities of the killers.

ARMM Police commander Chief Superintendent Bienvenido Latag dissuaded relatives and supporter of Toma­wis from retaliating.

“They should not take the law into their hands,” he said.

Davao Region police commander Chief Superintendent Pedro Tango has created Task Force Tomawis and named Criminal Investigation and Detection Group 11 director Senior Superintendent Pedro Cabatingan as head, with Davao City police director Senior Superintendent Rene Aspera as assistant.

TF Tomawis spokesman Superintendent Querubin Manalang said Tango has ordered that the investigation be fast-tracked to solve the murder case immediately.

Tango also directed the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory in Davao Region to do a cross-matching on the slugs and empty shells re­covered from the crime scene with those of other shooting incidents in the city, he added.

TF Tomawis is not discounting the possibility that the killing has something to do with politics.

Manalang said the task force is coming out with an artist’s sketch of the two killers whom Tomawis allowed into his home after they pretended to seek his signature for a docu­ment.

An inter-agency task force was also created yesterday to thwart escalation of violence related to the killing of Tomawis last Sunday.

Interior Secretary Jesse Robredo said the inter-agency task force is composed of the Department of the Interior and Local Government, the Department of Justice, the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation.

Headed by Interior Undersecretary Rico Puno, the task force will investigate all political killings in Mindanao, especially those involving elected government officials, he added.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima will send a representative to help the two task forces in the investigation, Robredo said. –With Edith Regalado, Cecille Suerte Felipe