Filtered By: Topstories
News

Ex-Batangas town vice mayor dies after ambush


(Updated 2: 20 p.m.) A former vice mayor of a town in Batangas province died in a hospital hours after he was ambushed by motorcycle-riding men in Alitagtag town Wednesday morning, a police officer said. Batangas police spokesman Supt. Arcadio Ronquillo said former Alitagtag vice mayor Noriel A. Salazar, 49, died at the Taal Polymedic Hospital around 11:40 a.m. In a phone interview, Ronquillo also said that two armed men ambushed Salazar around 8:45 a.m. in Alitagtag's Poblacion East village. Roquillo cited a report saying the victim was on his Toyota Lite Ace Van (UAT 112), when suspects shot him. The suspects, one wearing brown shirt and red bull cap, and the other wearing a blue helmet, fled on towards Alitagtag town's Barangay Pinagkrusan Junction, the report added. Victim sustained gun shot wound in the head and was rushed to Taal Polymedic Hospital in Taal, Batangas. Recovered from the crime scene one (1) spent shell for caliber-.45 handgun. An earlier report on dzBB radio quoted Batangas police chief Senior Superintendent Alberto Supapo as saying "Ang biktima Siya ay nasa ICU pa ngayon at under treatment... Magkakaroon tayo ng artist sketch sa gunman kasi namukhaan ng asawa ng biktima (The former vice mayor is now in an Intensive Care Unit at a hospital in Batangas. But we can come out with an artist's sketch of the gunman after the victim's wife managed to describe him.) Supapo said he has ordered a pursuit operation and a province-wide dragnet against the suspects. "Hinahanap din natin ang witnesses sa pinangyarihan (We are looking for witnesses who can shed light on what happened)," he said. Also, he said they are looking at politics as a possible motive, saying the vice mayor may have earned enemies when he ran for mayor in last year's elections. "Yan [ang] titingnan natin primarily sa investigation na ito (For now, we will consider politics as the primary motive)," he said. — LBG/RSJ, GMA News
LOADING CONTENT