Former Manila councilor slain

A former Manila councilor who was known for his tough stance against drug trafficking in the city, was brutally gunned-down by a suspected gun-for-hire in the city’s Chinatown district yesterday afternoon.

Sketchy police reports said Chika Go, 47, who served as a Manila Third District councilor from 1992-1995, was driving to his condominium unit at the Reina Regente Towers along Reina Regente Street aboard his light brown Mitsubishi Pajero van (WGU-768) when he was caught in heavy traffic at about 1:25 p.m.

As the van slowed to a stop past the Reina Regente bridge, a lone assailant walked to the van and opened fire at Go with a caliber .45 pistol.

After the shooting, the gunman escaped from the scene aboard a motorcycle, said Western Police District director Senior Superintendent Pedro Bulaong.

Ironically, the crime scene was just a few meters away from the Binondo police station.

Police said Go, who was seated at the back of his driver, Abel Polantos, 30, had just visited his mother Su Kin Go at the Chinese General Hospital where she is confined.

Go was taken to the Metropolitan Hospital where he died about an hour later while undergoing surgery for five gunshot wounds in various parts of the body.

Police records showed that it was the second time that Go had been the object of an assassination. Last May 21, Go was also ambushed in Sampaloc, Manila. Go was wounded. Also wounded in that attack was Go’s driver and his daughter.

According to Bulaong, they still have to establish the movie behind Go’s assassination as they track down the unidentified gunman. – Mike Frialde