Another Batangas village chief gunned down

BATANGAS, Philippines – A day after an incumbent barangay chairman was shot dead in Calaca town here, another village chief was gunned down in Mabini town Wednesday night, police said.

The latest victim, Edelito Beloso, 44, chairman of Barangay Talaga East in Mabini, had just come from a fiesta celebration and was walking home together with a municipal councilor and another village chief when he was shot by two men upon reaching M. Panganiban Street in Barangay Poblacion at 11:15 p.m. Wednesday, police said.

Beloso was rushed to the Mabini General Hospital but died an hour later. His companions were unharmed as they were able to run when the gunshots were fired.

Police said the gunmen used a silencer. Four spent shells and a slug were recovered at the crime scene.

Probers were still clueless on the killing, as they did in last Tuesday’s killing of 57-year-old Bernardo Buño, chairman of Barangay Puting Bato West in Calaca town.

Buño was talking to someone on his mobile phone in the terrace of his house when he was shot with a .45-caliber pistol. The gunman chased him inside his home and finished him off. – With Ed Amoroso