OLONGAPO CITY?The mayor of Zambales? capital town was wounded while two of his companions were killed on Saturday night when armed men shot them while they were having a drinking session in the official?s farm in Barangay Dirita in Iba town.

Iba Mayor Danilo Pamoleras, however, had been discharged from the hospital after treatment of his bullet wounds, said Senior Supt. Rolando Felix, Zambales police chief.

Pamoleras? companions?Bernie Abagon and Malvar Ganayan?were killed following the attack at 7:15 p.m. Four other men in the mayor?s group?Ruben Maohay, Milanio Abadam, Herson Nebres and Joseph Contreras?were also wounded.

?[Pamoleras] was drinking with his men who were working on this piece of land that he recently bought. He was building a bungalow there. Then, in the middle of their drinking session, they were strafed,? Felix said.

He said at least four suspects, who were armed with M-16 Armalite rifles, hid behind a bamboo fence around the property and shot Pamoleras? group through the spaces in the fence.

?There was light within the property, but around it was dark. So [the suspects] were able to get away without being identified,? Felix said.

Felix said they were pursuing an angle about a possible property dispute.

?We found that Mayor Pamoleras was already the third to claim ownership of the said land,? he said.