Gunmen kill Cagayan town mayor

Mayor Carlito Pentecostes Jr. of Gonzaga town, Cagayan province. FILE

BAYOMBONG, Nueva Vizcaya—“Good morning, mayor!” the man in military uniform said as he approached Carlito Pentecostes Jr. of Gonzaga town, Cagayan province, and shook his hand while the official was preparing to address employees in front of the municipal hall after the flag-raising ceremony on Monday morning.

A few seconds later, Pentecostes, 60, was dead, shot by an unidentified assailant.

His eldest brother, Eduardo, expressed shock over the killing. “I kept asking myself, ‘Why? What has my brother done that they had to do this to him?’” he said.

Eduardo said he was clueless over the motive of the attack, noting that the mayor was “a friend to everybody.”

“I do not believe that it has something to do with black sand mining because the people of Gonzaga, even his own critics, have already been convinced that this activity is very helpful to their community,” he said.

Since 2011, Pentecostes had been criticized for his vocal support for black sand mining undertaken by Chinese companies in Gonzaga.

The mayor had said mining was a lucrative financial base for the town to improve its economy but had to contend with the unease residents raised about the industry. He credited black sand mining for helping the town improve its town hall, market and public gymnasium.

He said he had discussed the mining proposals with them because “I am the kind of leader who is not afraid to explore possibilities.”

He said he acquired the support of a majority of residents to proceed when the Cagayan provincial government began issuing mining permits.

As of October last year, Gonzaga had earned P280 million representing the local government share from black sand extraction, Pentecostes said. At least P160 million went to the town’s 25 villages, he added.

Gonzaga (population: 36,030) is an agricultural town located at the northeastern tip of Cagayan. But the town relied solely on

P89 million in internal revenue allotments (or shares from taxes accumulated by the national government in a year) until Pentecostes assumed office in 2010.

The singing of the national anthem ended at 8:10 a.m.—the cue for a group of armed men believed to be communist rebels to storm the municipal grounds and carry out what could be a well-crafted plan to kill Pentecostes in full view of his subordinates.

Chief Supt. Miguel Laurel, Cagayan Valley police director, said the attackers arrived onboard a van in front of the municipal hall and disarmed three policemen controlling traffic flow on Dugo-San Vicente Road in Barangay Smart.

At least four of the gunmen who approached the mayor wore camouflage uniforms. “There were others who were earlier deployed in the area and disguised themselves as civilians,” Laurel said.

The killers fled in the same van, he said.

Witnesses thought they were Army officers, said Eduardo. “They had clean looks and were properly dressed,” he said in a phone interview from Gonzaga.

The mayor had at least nine bullet wounds in the body, he said. “No one should intervene; we only want the mayor,” he quoted one of the attackers as saying in Ilocano, citing witnesses’ accounts.