Camarines bet escapes shooting

LEGAZPI CITY, Philippines – A former village chief who is running for a municipal council seat under the administration’s Lakas-Kampi-CMD party was shot shortly after a political rally in Camarines Sur the other day.

Police said Danilo Magno, a council bet in Tinambac town, was unhurt but a driver of one of the vehicles in their convoy, a certain Bobby Lorilla, was hit by a 9-mm bullet in the abdomen.

Quoting reports, Senior Superintendent Eliciar Bron, Bicol police spokesman, said the attackers’ guns misfired several times, missing Magno and hitting Lorilla instead.

Magno and Lorilla were part of the convoy of Lakas-Kampi-CMD candidate Ted Cruz who led the miting de avance in Barangay Lupi, Tinambac town.

Cruz is running for a congressional seat in Camarines Sur’s fourth district.

“Our follow-up investigation showed that the target of the suspects was Magno. Probably the motive was his being a former barangay chairman and CAFGU (Citizen Armed Forces Geographical Unit) member,” Bron told The STAR.

Magno is the second Camarines Sur politician to be attacked by suspected communist rebels.

Last March 4, Ponciano Numeron, who was running for councilor in Pasacao town, was killed for refusing to pay permit-to-campaign fees to the insurgents.

The New People’s Army unit operating in Camarines Sur owned up to Numeron’s slay.

Bron said police would intensify their efforts to dismantle private armies and confiscate loose firearms.

Since the gun ban was enforced, 68 long firearms, 57 short firearms, and 33 deadly weapons have been confiscated in 12,776 checkpoints in Bicol’s six provinces, mostly in Masbate, according to the Regional Election Monitoring Action Center based at Camp General Simeon Ola.