SAN MANUEL, Pangasinan – A known supporter of a defeated mayoralty candidate here was shot dead Tuesday morning, police said.
The victim, Mario Aban Sr., 43, resident of Barangay Nagsaag, was a known supporter of Vice Mayor Bonie Apilado who ran for mayor in the last elections but lost. He also worked in the town hall.
Aban was on his way home on board a tricycle driven by one Miguel Guillermo when two motorcycle-riding men fired at him.
Responding policemen rushed Aban to the Laureano Perez Memorial Clinic but he was declared dead on arrival. Aban sustained six gunshot wounds.
Found at the crime scene were seven empty shells and two deformed slugs from a caliber .45 pistol.
Senior Superintendent Isagani Nerez, provincial police director, said that although Aban was a supporter of Apilado, the motive behind his killing might be personal since the elections were over.
“So whatever fight the victim might have had with the suspects, the killing might have been due to vengeance or personal hatred,” he said.
Nerez added that even Apilado could not say if politics had something to do with the killing.
Nerez said probers have leads that could lead to the arrest of the gunmen.