Killing season: Town Mayor shot dead in QC

MANILA, Philippines - Just a few days into the election period, a band of suspected hired guns fired the first lethal shot, murdering a town mayor two blocks away from the family home of President Aquino in Quezon City.

Mayor Erlinda Domingo, who was seeking reelection in Maconacon, Isabela, was shot in the head as she was getting out of her maroon Mitsubishi Adventure (SJA 893) in front of the Park Villa Apartelle at the corner of Examiner street and Quezon Avenue in West Triangle the other night. She was found lying in a pool of blood beside the vehicle.

Her driver-bodyguard, Bernard Plasos, ran after the killers but was shot and wounded in the right leg. He took refuge in the apartelle and is recuperating at the East Avenue Medical Center in Quezon City.

One of the suspects fled through Times street and tried to hide in a construction site, running smack into the police contingent that is regularly positioned around the Aquino family home.

Christian Pajenado, 26, led police to the home of another suspect in Barangay Commonwealth, Michael Domingo, 38. The two suspects brought police to the home of the alleged gunman, Marsibal Abduhadi, alias Bagwis, in a Muslim compound in Barangay Culiat, also in Quezon City.

Abduhadi was not around, but his wife Mary Grace Malonas, 25, was arrested for possession of a bag containing a .25 caliber Beretta pistol, a caliber .45 pistol with two magazines, a box of 9mm bullets, and a plastic sachet containing what police said were fruiting marijuana tops and drug paraphernalia.

Pajenado and Domingo pointed to another suspect, Ryan Santiago, 32, who remains at large.

Police both in Quezon City and Isabela province said they believed the attack was linked to political rivalry.

Erlinda Domingo, 51, was the vice mayor when the mayor of Maconacon, Francisco Talosig, was shot dead with a caliber .45 handgun in Tuguegarao, capital of Cagayan, on May 20, 2009.

Talosig’s killers have not been identified and business rivalry was one of the angles pursued by investigators, but his relatives suspected Domingo, who took over as mayor, of involvement in the murder.

Early last year, agents of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) raided Talosig’s house in Cabagan town and seized a cache of high-powered guns. The Talosigs also blamed Domingo for the raid, which led to the indictment of the late mayor’s widow Purisima, 58, for illegal gun possession.

Senior Superintendent Franklin Mabanag, Isabela police director, cited reports that the Talosigs had formed an alliance with Walter Abdul Villanueva, another rival of Domingo in the race for mayor in May.

Villanueva had lost to Domingo in 2010.

Mabanag said Plasos was a civilian security escort who did not have his licensed firearm with him Tuesday night because of the election gun ban, which went into effect at the start of the election period last Sunday.

Senior Superintendent Richard Albano, Quezon City police chief, described the suspects as “hired killers.”

Mabanag said Domingo was in Manila with her vice mayor as well as the mayor and vice mayor of Benito Soliven town in Isabela.

A member of the Nationalist People’s Coalition, Domingo had attended a get-together at the party’s clubhouse in New Manila, Quezon City, which is owned by NPC founder Eduardo Cojuangco Jr.

Domingo was returning to the apartelle, where she and her bodyguard had checked in the night before, when the gunmen attacked at around 8 p.m., according to Senior Superintendent Joel Pagdilao, deputy chief for administration of the Quezon City police.

Albano said P300,000 in cash was found in Domingo’s possession.

He said the suspects claimed they were paid for the hit but did not know who ordered it. Abduhadi was the one who got in touch with them, the suspects told police.

The NPC condemned the killing, with the party’s spokesman, Valenzuela Rep. Rex Gatchalian, describing Domingo as “one of the most active and hardest working members of our party.”

“She is certainly a great loss not only to our party but also to the people of Maconacon whom she had served with great humility and dedication,” Gatchalian said.

– With Charlie Lagasca, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Jess Diaz, Raymund Catindig