Zamboanga Sibugay vice mayor shot dead
ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines—The vice mayor of a town in Zamboanga Sibugay was killed while his wife was injured when a lone assailant shot them on Tuesday, police said.
Vice Mayor Carlito Bayawa, 52, and his wife Susan were on their way to a nearby bank to withdraw cash when they were attacked, Chief Superintendent Elpidio De Asis, Western Mindanao regional police director, said in a text message to the Inquirer on Wednesday.
De Asis said the Bayawas were approaching an automated teller machine of the Development Bank of the Philippines in Ipil town, also in Zamboanga Sibugay, when they were attacked late Tuesday afternoon.
The couple was to withdraw some cash, he said.
The local police reported that Bayawa had no bodyguard at that time.
De Asis did not disclose the extent of the vice mayor’s injuries but said his wife sustained a gunshot wound on left arm.
Ipil Mayor Eldwin Alibutdan said Bayawa died from a single bullet wound on the chest.
After shooting the victims, the assailant fled on a motorcycle driven by another man.
De Asis said based on the investigation of the local police, “the target was the wife, Susan, who was able to run during the shooting.” The assailants, he said, might have wanted to rob her.
He said the police were continuing with the investigation.
Alibutdan said the shooting alarmed officials of Ipil because it involved a ranking officials. Susan Bayawa, he said, was not just a housewife but also the municipal treasurer of Siay.
“The whole officialdom of Ipil condemns the killing of Siay Vice Mayor Bayawa right here in our town,” Ipil Councilor Albert Alcoriza said.
Alcoriza said an emergency meeting among Ipil town officials was held Tuesday evening, during which concerns were raised about the state of peace and order in Ipil.
He said they wanted the police to determine if the assailants were guns for hire or just plain robbers.
“We see many motives behind the killing. Bayawa’s family owns many agri-businesses in Siay. His wife Susan is also the municipal treasurer of their town. But what alarms us is the possibility that the killers may have tailed them down from Zamboanga City to Ipil,” Alibutdan said.
