MORE NEWS, ISABELA

Gunmen shoot dead another village chief

ILAGAN, Isabela – Police are still clueless as to the suspects in the killing of a barangay chairman of an interior town last week, the sixth village chief killed here in less than two years.

Artemio Garcia Sr., first-term barangay chairman of Capuseran, Benito Soliven town, was shot dead by still unidentified men at around 5:30 a.m. while returning from a barangay night patrol.

Police said Garcia, a barangay secretary before winning the village chairmanship in last year’s barangay elections, was hit three times.

Senior Insp. Ronald Laggui of the Benito Soliven police, meanwhile, said police investigations appear to point to a 2007 land dispute and politics as possible motives for the killing.

Garcia had reportedly been receiving death threats before his killing.

Further, a 42-year-old carpenter was stabbed dead after a scuffle in San Felipe, Echague town, around 11 a.m. also on Wednesday.

Police said that Santiago Guirang, 18, allegedly stabbed dead Federico Barbosa as a result of an altercation between him and Guirang’s elder brother, Jose, with whom the victim reportedly had a grudge during an earlier gambling session at a wake here. -- CL