The victim, Eutemio Patente, 45, who was seeking re-election as chairman of Barangay Jacopon, was shot by three men while he and his wife were waiting for a ride to the town proper.
Patente’s killing was the first such violent incident in the run-up to the July 15 barangay elections in Samar.
Senior Inspector Vicoencio Suarez, Catbalogan police chief, said Patente’s wife Irene recognized two of the assailants as Norberto Alinsuot and Peregrino Raya.
The triggerman, she alleged, was Florencio Apacible who planned to run against her husband and who filed the complaint against him in the Comelec.
All three suspects were subsequently arrested. Alinsuot and Raya are said to be supporters of Gov. Milagros Tan.
Irene said three shots were fired at her husband, one of which hit him in the left chest. He died while being rushed to the provincial hospital.
Meanwhile, the camp of Raya and Alinsuot alleged that relatives of Patente took revenge for his murder by killing two of their supporters and wounding another in Barangay Jacopon yesterday. — Ricky Bautista