Municipal councilor slain inside jampacked basketball court in Eastern Samar town

TACLOBAN CITY — A municipal councilor was watching a presentation inside a jam-packed basketball court in Mercedes town, Eastern Samar early Saturday when a lone gunman shot him in the head.

Councilor Antonio Abris of Mercedes fell on the ground with a bullet wound in the head.

The gunman, clad in a hooded jacket, slipped through the crowd that scrambled in different directions in panic.

Chief Insp. Manuel Nayag, Mercedes police chief, said they had yet to determine the motive in the killing of Abris who was serving his second term as councilor.

He said the councilor was not in the list of narco-politicians in Eastern Visayas.

“We are still conducting our investigation for us to establish what could be the motive of the suspect who mixed with the shocked crowd as he fled from the scene of the crime,” Nayag told the Inquirer in his mobile phone.

Abris was among the four guests in the program inside the basketball court in Barangay Sung-an, Mercedes.

The program, which featured dance and song numbers by different groups, was part of the series of activities to celebrate the fiesta of Mercedes on Saturday.

Despite the blackout experienced by the town, It started on Friday night and went on until past midnight on Saturday.

The basketball court was powered by a generator set since blackout hit the entire Eastern Samar, including Mercedes.

Abris was sitting with Councilors Primitivo Waniwan, Clodualdo Navidad, and Pio Macapugas, watching a dance number on stage about 12:40 a.m. when a man in a hooded jacket approached him from behind and shot him at the back of his head.

“The suspect could have taken advantage of the blackout in carrying out the crime which made his escape easy. He mixed with the crowd as he fled outside the basketball court,” Nayag said.

The victim was brought to the Polymedic Hospital in  Guiuan town,  8.4 kilometers from Mercedes, where he was declared dead on arrival.

Nayag said Mayor Enrique Cabos and Vice Mayor Edwin Quimenales directed him to conduct a thorough investigation on the killing of  Abris and arrest the perpetrator.