Sketch of Isabela’s top poll exec’s killer out

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya– Authorities released over the weekend a sketch of one of the killers of Isabela election supervisor Michael Valdez.

Police said the sketch is based on the descriptions of workers at Valdez’s Countrystate Hotel and Drive-in at northern Tumauini, Isabela, where he was shot dead last Nov. 14. The sketch was made by Camp Crame-based experts, led by Senior Police Officer 2 Gil Ancheta of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group.

According to reports, the sketch resembled Giovanni Mendoza, who was earlier tagged by Cagayan Valley police director Chief Superintendent Roberto Damian as one of two alleged gunmen.

Provincial police, led by Senior Supt. Jimmy Rivera, filed murder charges with no bail recommended against five suspects in the killing. Mendoza, Lito Magdangal, and Eric Alzate are still at large while suspects Harry Taccad and Gerry Calanday have been arrested.

The 37-year-old Valdez, whose remains were already laid to rest in his native Agoo town in La Union last Saturday, was shot by two motorcycle-riding armed men, who earlier posed as hotel guests, while tending his garden in the hotel compound.

Damian earlier said they would give more weight to the possibility that  Valdez’s killing may be both job and politically-related.

For his part, Gov. Antonio Alvaro of Caga-yan, where Valdez once served as election officer, believes that Valdez’s killing was politically motivated and a political figure could be behind it.

“(The) group (behind the killing of) is based in Cagayan and is being handled by (a political group) from Cagayan. What I’m trying to say is that the killing is due to politics,” he said in a statement.

Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca said the killing of her province’s election supervisor could have been the handiwork of an armed group based in her province.

“An armed group which becomes more active during election season (may be behind the said incident). We learned about armed groups that roam Isabela and sow violence whenever necessary to the group that hires them,” said Padaca, adding that these “killers (are) being maintained and living in the province’s three or four towns.”

Neither Antonio nor Padaca named names.

Valdez was the chairman-designate of the Cagayan provincial board of canvassers during the last 2007 elections, wherein the hotly-contested and controversy-ridden Cagayan gubernatorial race between Antonio and then governor Edgar Lara was only resolved after a month, with the former being proclaimed by a slim margin amid allegations of election fraud by the latter’s camp.

Also, Valdez was the Isabela provincial election registrar when Padaca and former three-term governor Benjamin Dy slugged it out in 2007, wherein the former was proclaimed for her second term amid the latter’s charges of alleged election fraud. -- CL