Isabela Lakas leader slain in front of wife

JONES, Isabela — Seven unidentified men gunned down this town’s chairman of the ruling Lakas-NUCD party in front of his wife Thursday night, police said.

The victim, Joaquin Soriano, chairman of Barangay San Vicente, had led supporters of Dr. Asuncion Abaya in a protest rally at the provincial capitol building in Ilagan town.

Abaya, of the Lakas-NUCD, ran against lawyer Giorgidi Aggabao in the recent special poll for the fourth congressional district seat vacated by the death of her husband, Rep. Antonio Abaya. Aggabao was declared winner.

Police said Soriano, 42, a civil engineer and professor at the University of La Salette in Santiago City, was shot dead inside his residence.

His wife, Nena, said the gunmen, wearing camouflage uniforms, arrived with one of her husband’s leaders, apparently to lure him into letting them in. — Lito Salatan