Mayor’s brother found dead with bullet wound

BACOLOD CITY, Philippines — The brother of City Mayor Evelio Leonardia was found dead inside his room Saturday morning in Silay City, Negros Occidental with a gunshot wound on his head.

Andres Leonardia, 62 and a widower, was a candidate for Bacolod councilor in the 2013 elections, under the party of three-termer Mayor Leonardia, who is running for congressman also this year.

Mayor Leonardia said President Benigno Aquino III called him Saturday afternoon expressing his deep sympathy, and said, "You are a friend. Your loss is also my loss."

Superintendent Arturo Francisco, Silay City Police director, said they found the bloodied body of Leonardia inside his residence at Camia St., Fortunata Subdivision in Brgy. 5 of Silay City.

Francisco said police investigators recovered from Andres’s bedroom a .45 caliber handgun. He ruled that it was a case of accidental firing as there was nothing to indicate foul play or a suicide.

Francisco said Andres may have been cleaning or checking his .45 caliber pistol inside his room, when it accidentally fired. He, however, added that the Scene of the Crime Operatives of the police have yet to release their final investigation report on the incident.

Francisco said Andres’s two children and house helpers heard gunfire from the victim’s room at 9:30 a.m. Alarmed, they rushed to his room and discovered his dead body on the bed, added the police official.

Andres’s children and house helpers were quoted by the police as saying that they have not noticed anything unusual in his behavior prior to his death. They said he left the house early morning and told them he was withdrawing money from an automated teller machine.

Andres returned at around 9:30 a.m. Shortly after, he proceeded to his room, and then a loud gunfire reverberated inside the house.

Andres had served as general manager of Victorias-Manapla-Cadiz (VMC) Rural Electric Service Cooperative (VRESCO), and later ran his own business.

His body was cremated Saturday night after a Mass here in Bacolod.  Interment is scheduled today at the Silay Catholic Cemetery, said the mayor.