Former Ayungon Mayor Edsel Enardecido and his cousin, Canlaon City Councilor Ramon Jalandoni, and the barangay captain of Panubigan in Canlaon were shot dead Saturday dawn, in the latest spate of shooting incidents in Negros Oriental.
Saturday’s fatalities added to the 21 who had been killed in shooting incidents in Negros Oriental from July 3 to July 27.
Last Tuesday, lawyer Anthony Trinidad and his wife were ambushed by gunmen in Guihulngan City. Trinidad’s wife, Novie Marie, survived.
Then on Thursday, unidentified gunmen shot dead a barangay captain and two employees of the Department of Education in Guihulngan City.The motive for the killings is still unknown.
A report from the Negros Oriental Provincial Police Office identified the victims as Romeo Arbole Alipan, 64, married, the barangay captain of Buenavista, Guihulngan and a resident of Larena, barangay Poblacion of the same city; and Arthur Cordevilla Bayawa, 55, single, school principal of Guihulngan Science High School and his sister, Ardale Cordevilla Bayawa, 49, single, CID chief of DepEd Division of Guihulngan, both residents of barangay Hibaiyo of that northern city.
Police reports said that at around 12:55 a.m., unidentified armed men forced their way inside the house of the Bayawa siblings by destroying the doorknob and shot the two DepEd employees.
The suspects immediately fled in an unknown getaway vehicle.
Enardecido was mayor of Ayungon for nine years, and ran for Board Member representing the 1st District but lost in the last elections.
Enardecido had ordered the closure of a silica mining company in his town last year, allegedly for lack of the required business permit. After the closure order was served, some 50 NPA guerillas burned in January the mining firm’s heavy equipment in barangay Jandalamon.
Last week, President Duterte has ordered an investigation into the killing of lawyer Anthony Trinidad.
“PRRD has ordered a thorough probe on the incident to determine who these perpetrators are and to ascertain the motive of the ambush,” Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement on Thursday.
“The Office of the President strongly condemns the killing of Atty. Anthony Trinidad by two gunmen aboard a motorcycle in Negros Oriental, as well as the the infliction of bodily harm upon his wife,” Panelo said.
He condemned the incident, describing it as “atrocious” should it be discovered that the felony is “work-related.”
He also said government will prosecute the killers, and ensure they will face the appropriate penalties.
“We will prosecute these killers and ensure they will face the appropriate punishment for such criminal act as we commit to deliver justice not just for the family of Atty. Trinidad but for the entire Filipino community,” he added. (Judy F. Partlow/PNA)
br />
