DAGUPAN CITY—The mayor of Agno, Pangasinan, was shot dead while he was playing mahjong with friends in a neighbor’s house on Saturday night.

Pangasinan police director Senior Supt. Isagani Nerez said Agno Mayor Arthur Cabantac died from four bullet wounds after the suspect shot him at 9:30 p.m. through an open window in the house of his friend, Cecilia Bona, in Barangay Poblacion East in the town.

Cabantac, 55, died while being taken to a hospital in Alaminos City, about 25 km from Agno.

Investigators found four empty shells from an M-16 Armalite rifle at the crime scene.

Nerez said Cabantac was the only one hit in the table of four players.

Cabantac’s police escort and security aides were not around when he was attacked, he said.
Nerez said investigators were looking at political and personal motives as possible reasons behind the murder.

Cabantac defeated former Mayor Leticia Rosete by 68 votes in the 2007 mayoral election. His victory broke the Rosete family’s hold on Agno politics that started in 1980.

Cabantac will be succeeded by Vice Mayor Jose Pajeta Jr., whose mother is Rosete’s sister.

Adev Cabantac, wife of the slain mayor, said her husband left a good paying job in a construction company and chose to run for Agno mayor because he wanted to develop his hometown.

She said Cabantac retired from the National Housing Authority, where he last served as director for Metro Manila, after working in the government for 30 years.

He then joined the private sector and ran for mayor of Agno in 2004 but lost. He won in his second attempt in 2007.

“He did not need bodyguards because he had no enemies,” she told the Inquirer in a telephone interview on Sunday.

She said Cabantac would play mahjong occasionally with friends as a form of relaxation.

Binalonan Mayor Ramon Guico Jr., national president of the League of Municipalities of the Philippines, condemned Cabantac’s killing.

"The situation in Pangasinan is becoming different now. Why is it that there have been many killings in the province and not one has been solved?” Guico said in a telephone interview.

At least three Pangasinan councilors have been murdered since October last year, prompting Philippine Councilors’ League provincial president Raul Sison to file a resolution at the Sangguniang Panlalawigan asking the police to immediately solve these cases.

On July 1, motorcycle-riding gunmen shot dead San Quintin Councilor Albert Sibayan. Binalonan Councilor Igmedio Lariosa was attacked while he was walking home in Barangay Camangaan on June 29.

Alcala Councilor Juan Ablao was also shot dead on Oct. 22, 2007. Yolanda Sotelo-Fuertes and Gabriel Cardinoza, Inquirer Northern Luzon