By Mai Gevera
COMPOSTELA VALLEY, Philippines — As Election Day nears, political candidates are now seeking the role of the Philippine National Police as well as elements of the Philippine Army to intensify investigation of the suspected election-related killings in Compostela Valley Province.
Re-electionist Representative Manuel Waykurat Zamora expressed disappointment on the PNPs lack of thorough investigation in the recent and simultaneous killings in his province.
Zamora believed that the death of 46-year-old Nardito Ongcal, a barangay councilman and his political coordinator, was politically motivated.
The shooting happened a day after a peace covenant in the said province which was participated by three congressional bets Zamora, Lito Brillantes, and Franco Tito.
The authorities should seriously investigate on this case before releasing a statement., Zamora said.
Earlier, PNP XI refused to call the incident as election-related since they are still into the investigation and still open to the possibility that it was not in any way motivated by politics.
But Zamora claimed that the authorities must immediately and seriously look upon the incidents especially that series of killings occurred in Comval.
On April 19, close-in-aide of congressional bet Joselito Brillantes was shot and killed by unidentified armed men. Three days earlier, a political supporter of Representative Zamora identified as Bienvenido Esguera was ambushed and wounded by two unidentified men in Monkayo.
Last April 7, a barangay tanod of Barangay San Jose was ambushed and killed by five armed men around while hes onboard his motorcycle on towards his residence.
PNP is acting on this matter through the creation of a special body dubbed as Task Group Monkayo that started their investigation last April 10. (PIA XI/Mai Gevera) davaotoday.com
2007 Elections, Extrajudicial Killings
