Ex-Laguna councilor shot dead

CAMP VICENTE LIM, Laguna – A former councilor was killed while another one was seriously wounded in an ambush at a gasoline station in Sta. Rosa City yesterday morning, police said.

Senior Superintendent Sergio Dimaldal, spokesman of the Calabarzon police, said former Sta. Rosa councilor Raul Aala was rushed to the Southern Luzon Hospital, 100 meters away from the ambush scene in Barangay Don Jose, but he was pronounced dead on arrival due to multiple gunshot wounds in the head and body.

A passerby, businessman Jose Espina, was hit by a stray bullet in the leg.

Police said Aala had just finished filling gas at the Shell station at around 8:35 a.m. when men in a silver-gray van fired at his Kia Sorento with M-16 and AK 47 rifles.

Probers suspect old grudge as a motive in the ambush-slay. – Ed Amoroso, Arnell Ozaeta