TUMAUINI, ISABELA, Philippines—The top Commission on Elections official in Isabela was gunned down on Saturday morning by two men in an inn that he owned here, police said.
Chief Insp. Roberto Bucad, provincial police spokesperson, said lawyer Michael Valdez, Isabela election supervisor, was tending his garden at the Countrystate Drive-in Hotel in Barangay 4 here when he was attacked at 5:45 a.m. Saturday.
Valdez, 37, died while being taken to the Tumauini Community Hospital. His body bore three bullet wounds from a .45-cal. pistol.
Bucad said the gunmen, who fled aboard a motorcycle, stayed at the inn for three nights and were apparently monitoring Valdez’s movements.
He said information gathered by police investigators from the inn’s employees showed that the gunmen would leave during the day and return at night.
Inn workers told the Inquirer that their guests were not required to register so they had no way of identifying the suspects.
Valdez held office at the provincial Commission on Elections in the capital Ilagan town, some 40 km from here, and visited his inn once a week.
Chief Supt. Roberto Damian, Cagayan Valley police chief, said police are looking at vendetta from past election-related cases that Valdez handled as election supervisor of Isabela and Cagayan, as a possible motive in the murder.
“[Valdez] was able to run after the first shot, but he was finished off with two more shots,” Damian said.
Former Gov. Benjamin Dy, who has a pending election protest at the Comelec against Isabela Gov. Grace Padaca, condemned Valdez’s slaying. “We lost a good friend,” Dy said.
Isabela Rep. Faustino Dy III said he would file on Monday a resolution in the House of Representatives seeking the creation of a fact-finding team to investigate Valdez’s murder.
“This is the first time in Isabela history that an election supervisor was killed,” Dy III said.
In a statement, Padaca described the killing as “terrible but not totally unexpected.”
“It is not totally unexpected because every election time, we learn about armed groups that roam Isabela and sow violence,” the statement quoted Padaca as saying.
