P1-M reward set: three Cagayan Valley barangay officials slain

By Charlie Lagasca, Raymund Catindig

SOLANO, Nueva Vizcaya --Two village officials have already been killed in Isabela and another in Cagayan the past two weeks, police said. 

This, as Anac-IP party-list Rep. Jose Panganiban is offering a P1-million reward for information leading to the arrest of those behind last Wednesday’s killing of a village chief in Isabela. 

Arnold Pastor, 47, chairman of Barangay Loria in Angadanan town, and his wife, Leilanie, 45, succumbed to multiple gunshot wounds when their Toyota Hilux were peppered with .45-caliber bullets.

Pastor was an ex-officio member of the municipal council, being the Liga ng mga Barangay president of Angadanan where Panganiban served as mayor for nine years.

Panganiban’s wife is now the town’s incumbent mayor.

The slain barangay official was reportedly one of the Panganibans’ political supporters.

The Pastors had just come from a wake and were on their way home when they were waylaid.

Investigators were looking into personal vendetta and job-related angles in the killing, although relatives and supporters of the Pastors said the couple had no known enemies or threats. 

The killing was the second involving a village official in Isabela in less than two weeks. Last Aug. 24, Rafael Martinez, 47, a councilman of Barangay Centro East in Santiago City, was shot dead by motorcycle-riding men.

Martinez, who was reportedly planning to reclaim the village chairmanship in the Oct. 28 barangay polls, had just also come from a relative’s wake when he was shot several times with a .45-caliber pistol.

In Enrile, Cagayan, meanwhile, a village chief was shot and wounded during a drinking spree in his turf last week.

Police said Marion Manlincon, chairman of Barangay San Antonio, was having drinks with his councilmen in a friend’s house when the lone gunman approached them and asked who among them was “Kapitan Manlincon.”

Although drunk, Manlincon wasted no time and ran away while the unidentified man fired several shots at him with a .45-caliber pistol, hitting him in the back, and then fled aboard a motorcycle.