Police tracking down poll rival of slain Isabela mayor

ILAGAN CITY, Philippines – Authorities are now scouring the hinterlands of Sierra Madre in search of a rival of slain Maconacon town Mayor Erlinda Domingo in the May polls who they suspect could be involved in the killing.

Senior Superintendent Franklin Mabanag, Isabela police director, said Walter Villanueva, Domingo’s lone opponent in the midterm elections, could have a hand in the murder of Domingo in Quezon City on the night of Jan. 22.  

Mabanag said Villanueva could be hiding in Divilacan, another Isabela coastal town which can only be through foot trails, chartered flights or a 24-hour boat ride from Cagayan’s northernmost town of Santa Ana along the South China Sea.

Villanueva, a Muslim convert, was last seen in Maconacon in October last year when he filed his certificate of candidacy as an independent against the second-term-seeking Domingo of the Nationalist People’s Coalition.

Mabanag and his men flew to Maconacon over the weekend to verify the whereabouts of Villanueva, but to no avail. Provincial officials are also uncertain as to where he is.

Isabela Gov. Faustino Dy III told The STAR that Villanueva is already considered a principal suspect in the Domingo killing.

“We are delighted with this development. The case is almost 100-percent solved with his capture,” said Dy.

He said the arrest of suspected triggerman Marsibal Abduhadi could also lead to the unmasking of the slay brains.

Abduhadi’s alleged cohorts, his wife, Mary Grace, Christian Pajenado and Michael Domingo, were arrested a few hours after the killing. They are now facing murder charges before the Quezon City prosecutor’s office.

Villanueva’s mayoral bid was allegedly endorsed by the family of the late Maconacon mayor Francisco Talosig, who was also slain in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan in May 2009.

Talosig’s death paved the way for Domingo, then the vice mayor, to assume the mayoral post.

Domingo beat Villanueva and Talosig’s son Royle Gordon in the 2010 elections. The Talosigs have denied any involvement in the Domingo killing. 

Domingo, 51, was shot in the back of her head as she was getting out of her Mitsubishi Adventure outside the Park Ville Apartelle in Quezon City last Jan. 22. Her driver, Bernard Plasos, was also shot and wounded when he tried to chase the suspects.