Negros Oriental Gov. Roel Degamo on Tuesday said he wants the Commission on Elections to place Bayawan City under its control after a series of killings involving his supporters.
The latest victim was identified as Wenifred Abrasaldo, a church leader who was shot dead in an eatery in barangay Boyco in the southern city on Tuesday morning.
The night before, a man identified as Toto Bawega was also gunned down in barangay Minaba, while Hector Palma was gunned down last week, also in Bayawan, about 100 kilometers south of Dumaguete.
Police investigation has not yet tagged the three incidents as election-related.
In an online video message after Abrasaldo’s slaying, the Governor blamed his political foes for the killings, but did not divulge names.
“I am condemning (these killings) in (the) strongest possible terms, and I would like to inform those who are behind the shootings that these have been reported already to Malacañang,” he said in mixed English and Cebuano.
He vowed to do everything in his power to have the perpetrators arrested, and obtain justice for those killed.
The Governor urged the public to be vigilant and mindful of their surroundings as he called for a “change in the system” and not continue to “live in fear.”
Degamo is seeking a fourth consecutive term in the May 9 polls.
He was deemed eligible for a third and final three-year post, as his first term, which began in January 2011, was meant to replace the deceased governor Agustin Perdices.
Meanwhile, a ranking official of the Commission on Elections in Negros Oriental on Thursday said placing an area under the control of the poll body is a “last resort” that has to go through a tedious process.
Lawyer Lionel Marco Castillano, provincial election supervisor-designate of Negros Oriental, said that while he “understands the apprehension of [the] Governor” in asking Bayawan City to be placed under Comelec control, it is not possible yet, and that it is “still too early”.
“It is not easy to place an area under Comelec control because it needs an en banc Resolution of the agency, and it goes through a stringent process,” Castillano said.
Besides, the shooting incidents have not been proven yet to be related to the May 9 elections, he added.
Castillano, moreover, said placing an area under Comelec control will have “negative implications on the local economy and tourism” as people will think of the place as unsafe and not secure.
“For now, we have deployed additional security forces to Bayawan City with the reassurance of peaceful and orderly elections in May,” he added.
The Comelec lawyer also asked the residents of the southern City to cooperate with authorities by giving information on the shooting incidents.
Castillano reassured the Governor and the city folks that the Philippine National Police and the Armed Forces of the Philippines are jointly digging deeper into the shooting incidents.
At a luncheon meeting on Thursday with PNP Provincial Director Col. Germano Mallari, and Philippine Army 302nd Infantry Brigade Commander Brig. Gen. Leonardo Peña, Castillano said he was informed that pursuit operations continue, and cases will be filed against the suspects in the killings.
He did not elaborate on whether the three killings are related to each other. (Judy F. Partlow/PNA)
