Cavite vice mayor, help killed in an ambush

Date of publication: 16:45, 7 July 2018 | Last updated: 12h32, 8 July 2018

Armed men stole the vehicle carrying the vice mayor of the city of Trece Martires in the province of Cavite with bullets in broad daylight on Saturday afternoon, immediately killing the responsible local, according to the police. Alexander Lubigan, 44, was with his teammate Romulo Guillemer and his security assistant, Romeo Edrinal, when the gunmen blocked the passage of his Toyota Hi-lux black van and opened fire around 3 pm. in front of the Korea-Philippines friendship hospital on the Trece Martires-Indang road to Barangay Luciano in the provincial capital

Lubigan became the third senior official of a local government unit (LGU) to be killed in a week after Mayor Antonio Halili of Tanauan City, Batangas Province, and Mayor Ferdinand Bote of General Tinio, Nueva Ecija Province

Armed men fled to the city of Indang aboard a black sport utility vehicle, according to the police

. William Segun, director of the Cavite police, said that Lubigan died on the spot while Guillemer, 50, died a few hours later at the city's Emilio Aguinaldo General Hospital

Edrinal, 56 , survived and was cared for in

Lubigan, who participated in the 2016 elections under the banner of the United Nationalist Alliance, was in his third term as deputy mayor.

Malacañang condemned Saturday the Lubigan assassination

"We must unite to end disturbing incidents of violence Halil was shot dead Monday by a sniper during a flogging ritual at the Town Hall of Tanauan, while Bote was ambushed the next day by motorcyclists Unmen while he was leaving the complex of the National Irrigation Administration in the city of Cabanatuan in his sport utility vehicle. 19659005] At least 10 mayors have been killed since President Duterte took office in June 2016.

Halili, who was part of the Filipino Agency's "Narcotics" list for enforcement narcotics laws were stripped of the local police's supervisory powers amid allegations that he was involved in drug trafficking

Panfilo Lacson, a former PNP leader and a friend of Halili, called on the authorities to "bring responsible bastards [for the three local officials’ deaths] including their brains to the bar of justice."

"Let us hope and pray that successive assassinations of elected officials are not symptomatic of a bloody mid-term election next year."

Increasing concern

In a Interview on Saturday radio, Lacson said that Halili had told him that he feared a retired general in the next year's elections

The governor of Cavite, Jesus Crispin Remulla, said in a telephone interview that Lubigan was going to a gym when the gunmen hit him

[I’ve] him, "Remulla said of his" good friend "Lubigan.

Trece Mayor Martires Melandres de Sagun, a comrade of Lubigan party, was on holiday abroad, according to Remulla who signed the mayor's travel documents two weeks ago.] Suint Chitadel Gaoiran, Calabarzon police spokeswoman, said that the investigators were mainly interested in politics The motive for the murder, he did not elaborate.

The bravery of the murders has increased the anxieties among elected officials who now fear for their lives when they venture out of their homes, according to the Union of Local Authorities of the Philippines (Ulap).

The governor of Albay, Al Francis Bichara, president of Ulap, strongly condemned the assassinations of Halili, Bote and Lubigan, claiming that the incidents had severely affected the work of local officials. -With reports from Christine O. Avendaño, Michael Jaucian and Inquirer Research

/ atm / pdi