Capiz town vice mayor shot dead

CEBU, Philippines - The vice mayor of Mambusao town in Capiz was shot to death in front of his house early morning yesterday.

Vice Mayor Abel Martinez, 79, was shot by a lone gunman at around 6 a.m. while he was talking to a neighbor and the caretaker of his mini-poultry.

His house is located in Rizal Street, Poblacion Proper, Mambusao.

Investigation revealed that the gunman walked near him (Martinez) and, without a word, pulled out a caliber .45 pistol concealed in a sack and pulled the trigger.

The gunman immediately fled on board a motorcycle driven by another man, which was parked about 100 meters from Martinez’ house.

Martinez fell to the ground with six gunshot wounds, three on the head and three on other parts of his body. He was brought to the Mambusao District Hospital but was declared dead on arrival.

Insp. Samuel Vipinosa said there was never any report of any threat to Martinez’s life prior to yesterday’s incident.

In fact, except for his driver, the vice mayor had no other personal security aide. He was living with his only daughter.

Vipinosa said the gunman and the driver of the getaway motorcycle did not even bother covering their faces.

“They acted confident that no one could possible identify them,” he added.

Vipinosa surmised that the killers could be members of a gun-for-hire group and could have been tailing Martinez for quite sometime already.

It was reportedly the vice mayor’s routine to walk and exercise near his house every 6 a.m.

Martinez has been in politics for decades. He served as Capiz provincial board member and was on his last term as vice-mayor.

Immediately after the incident, all police units in Panay were directed to set up chokepoints and checkpoints in the hope to intercept the assailants.

Meanwhile, Senior Supt. Domingo Cabillan, Capiz police chief, said a group called Special Investigation Task Group Martinez has been created to fast focus on the investigation and to fasttrack the resolution of the case.

Cabillan acts as task group commander with members from the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, Mambusao Police Station, Provincial Investigation and Detection Branch, and Capiz Provincial Public Safety Company.

The National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Regional Intelligence Office (RIO) VI will also conduct their own investigation on the incident.

As this developed, Cabillan said they could not divulge the possible motive of the killing.

Relatedly, Chief Supt. Cipriano Querol, Jr., regional police chief, reiterated his directive to all police unit commanders to intensify the campaign against loose firearms.

“We are faced with incidents where guns are used to commit a crime, and we see this as a big challenge to strenghten our operations against loose firearms,” he said.

From January 1 to April 30 this year, Police Regional Office (PRO) VI recovered 166 loose firearms out of 135 operations. Of this number, Capiz Police Provincial Office (PPO) has recovered only 14 loose firearms of the 11 operations conducted.

Negros Occidental police topped the accomplishment with the recovery of 42 loose firearms; Iloilo PPO with 34; Aklan with 20; Bacolod City PO with 18; Iloilo City PO with 15; Antique with 14; Guimaras PPO with 3; the Regional Public Safety Battalion with one; and the Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Group with five./JMO (FREEMAN)