Abra council bet shot dead; Comelec sets control moves

TAYUM, Abra -- A candidate for councilor in this town was shot while campaigning Tuesday morning.

Alexander Echabe, who was the candidate of PDP-Laban, was shot in the head, a sketchy report by Joey Brillantes, Echabe’s companion said.

Brillantes said Echabe and his group were campaigning in Sitio Ananao, Barangay Budac, when the gunman approached shot him.

Brillantes said the gunman and his companions then fled.

Brillantes identified the gunman as a barangay chairman and his companions as his brothers..

Abra was declared as category red hotspot are by the Commission on Elections on March 19.

The shooting happened on the same day that the Cordillera regional police chief, Brig. Gen. Israel Ephraim Dickson, visited Abra to check on security preparations for the May midterm election.

Dickson had moved around key police officials in Abra as well as changed the mobile force companies assigned in the province.

Following this, a local Commission on Elections official said in Bangued Tuesday the result of the Joint Security Coordinating Center investigation on the twin shootings in Tayum will determine whether or not the province will be under Comelec control.

Lawyer Dexter Barry Cawis, Comelec-Abra election officer, said the Police Regional Office Cordillera has ordered an investigation on the two shooting incidents that happened in Tayum at about 9 a.m. on Tuesday.

Earlier media reports said one of the victims involved a PDP-Laban candidate for councilor, who was allegedly shot on the head by a barangay captain, while the other victim was hit with a bullet on the leg when a mayoralty candidate allegedly fired shots on the vehicle of the group of the Budac village chairman.

The shooting incidents reportedly occurred one after the other during a campaign sortie in An-ananao, Budac, Tayum.

"We still have to verify what really happened in Tayum. The police report usually goes up to the region and is submitted to the JSCC and will be forwarded to the Comelec en banc, which will determine whether to place it under Comelec control," Cawis said.

The Comelec declared Abra as a hot spot on March 19.

He said they are hoping that there would be no incident that will disturb the peace and order in the province.

Cawis said an area under Comelec control due to peace and order issues will be in the hands of the Comelec en banc.

"The en banc can relieve any cop, any member of the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) or PNP (Philippine National Police), create a task force to have an administrative control over deputized agencies," he said.

Cawis said the PNP, AFP, and the Comelec are now discussing the security preparations for the May 13 mid-term elections.  – With a PNA report