Wrong Quiapo barangay captain assassinated?

MANILA, Philippines - The gunmen who shot dead a barangay chairman in Quiapo, Manila Thursday may have killed the wrong man, a Manila Police District (MPD) investigator said yesterday.

Barangay 348 Zone 39 chairman Sainal Shariff, 56, was watching television with his wife in their house on Globo de Oro street when a man walked in and shot him repeatedly before 9 p.m. Thursday.

The investigator, who requested anonymity, told The STAR Shariff’s murder may be a case of mistaken identity. He said another barangay captain in Quiapo could have been the real target.

The investigator said the barangay captain was tagged as the mastermind in the kidnapping and summary execution of two Muslim men in Quiapo on June 13. Carmona, Cavite homicide operatives came to the MPD to coordinate a day after one of the victims survived and told his story.

The case was officially logged in the report submitted to the MPD by the Cavite police, according to the investigator.

The victim, who is recuperating in a government hospital in Manila, said he and a companion were kidnapped because one of them was allegedly having an affair with a relative of the barangay chairman.

He said their families were told to produce P300,000 in exchange for their freedom. When their families failed to come up with the money, they were brought to Carmona to be killed. He survived being shot.

The investigator said the summary execution victim’s family may have ordered the barangay chairman killed, but the hired gunmen may have assassinated the wrong man.

He said Shariff had improved living conditions in his barangay and is well-loved by his constituents. He added that investigators could not see any motive for his murder.

Officials of the MPD’s homicide section were not available for comment yesterday.