Ilocos Sur vice mayor shot dead by own son

CAMP ELPIDIO QUIRINO, Bantay, Ilocos Sur — The vice mayor of the Ilocos Sur town of San Juan was gunned down by his own son inside their residence Friday night, police said.

Vice Mayor Richard Varilla, 48, was pronounced dead on arrival at the Tolentino Clinic and Hospital in nearby Sto. Domingo town. He sustained two gunshot wounds from a caliber 9-mm.

PO3 Romar Renon, which is probing the case, said Varilla, the highest public official killed in Ilocos Sur this year, had a heated argument before the shooting with his 23-year-old son Bander, a criminology student, inside their home in Barangay Immayos Norte, San Juan town at about 6:30 p.m. Friday.

Investigators found two 9-mm slugs inside the Varilla home, believed to be the ones that killed the vice mayor.

Renon said the elder Varilla was shot from behind.

The younger Varilla fled after the incident, bringing the gun with him, he said. Police have launched a manhunt for him.

Early this year, a councilor in Bantay, Ilocos Sur was gunned down by motorcycle-riding men believed to be hired guns.

Councilor Pail Anthony Benito Lucero, 41, was driving his car when he was fired at with caliber .45 pistols past midnight of March 9.

Police, which initially theorized that business rivalry, politics or personal grudge motivated the killing, have yet to solve the case.