2 charged for b’gay exec’s slay

CITY OF SAN FERNANDO — Police have filed murder charges against two suspects in last Tuesday’s killing of a barangay chairman and campaign chief of a mayoral candidate in Arayat, Pampanga.

Senior Superintendent Rodolfo Mendoza, provincial police director, tagged a certain Romeo Guevarra and Edwin Adona as behind the gunslaying of Leopoldo Pineda, 45, chairman of Barangay San Juan Bano and campaign manager of mayoral bet Chito Espino.

Espino is the nephew of incumbent Mayor Benigno Espino, who opted to retire from politics.

The charges filed were based on the testimonies of witnesses naming them as Pineda’s alleged killers. A third suspect remains unidentified.

Pineda and some barangay councilmen were milling about the door of the barangay hall when the gunmen wearing long-sleeved fatigues and short pants, appeared.

Mendoza said Pineda ran inside the barangay hall but the armed men gave chase and shot him inside a comfort room with short firearms. They then commandeered a tricycle and fled.

Police probers found eight empty caliber .45 shells, one empty 9-mm shell and five deformed 9-mm slugs at the crime scene.

Police earlier blamed the killing on the New People’s Army (NPA) which is asserting dominance in Arayat town against two other armed groups, the Hukbong Gerilya ng Arayat and Rebolusyonaryong Hukbo ng Bayan. — Ric Sapnu