3 Bulacan murders linked?

CALUMPIT, Bulacan – Is there a connection in the killings of this town’s former vice mayor Arthur Garcia, former mayor Ramon Pagdanganan and the incumbent mayor’s brother-in-law.

Police said they are still looking at it and cannot make a conclusion yet.

However, residents cannot avoid making speculations, noting that all three were slain in the month of May.

Garcia, who served as one of the campaign managers of incumbent Mayor James de Jesus in the 2004 elections, was gunned down by motorcycle-riding men near his house in Barangay San Juan, Hagonoy town on May 22, 2004.

On May 14, 2006, Dr. Norman Josue, De Jesus’ brother-in-law and one of his leading campaign financiers, was shot dead in Barangay Bulusan here.

Josue’s three companions, driver Rafael Camua, Neneth Francia and engineer Lino Ignacio, were wounded in the attack.

Last Sunday night, Pagdanganan was gunned down by two motorcycle-riding men while his friend, Willy Paras, was hit by a stray bullet in the left leg.

Special police task forces were created to go after those behind the three killings, but all remain virtually unsolved, although the Josue case is pending in court.

Many locals believe that the murders were politically motivated, but police said they are still investigating them, especially the Pagdanganan killing.

Other killings in the province since 1999, also believed to be politically motivated, are also mostly unsolved.

The victims include former San Ildefonso mayor Honorato Galvez who was killed on June 10, 2000; former Doña Remedios Trinidad mayor Esteban Paulino, slain in December 2000; congressional aspirant Rudy Da Silva, killed in January 2007; and Luisito Sta. Maria, nephew of the political kingpin in Bulacan town, slain in an ambush-robbery just before last year’s polls.

Of these cases, only the Galvez murder prospered with the incarceration of five suspects, although no mastermind was convicted.

In the Paulino case where the former mayor’s police bodyguard and nephew-driver were also killed, at least three suspects were charged, but all remain at large.