2 village chiefs gunned down in Zamboanga

PAGADIAN CITY, Zamboanga del Sur, Philippines — Two village chiefs were shot to death in two separate incidents in the Zamboanga Peninsula on Saturday, according to police.

First to be killed was Edgardo Podpod Viñas, chief of Barangay Dapaon in Sindangan, Zamboanga del Norte, and president of the Association of Barangay Captains in his town.

Viñas was shot on the street at around 11:58 a.m. by a gunman wearing a red helmet aboard a black motorcycle shot him.

The official had just adjourned a session at the ABC Hall in Barangay La Roche in Sindangan, according to Maj. Domingo Murillo, municipal police chief.

Murillo said police were looking into a possible political angle in the killing.

The assassin fled towards Barangay Goleo, while Viñas was taken to the Sindangan District Hospital, where he was declared dead on arrival.

At 6:45 p.m. on the same day, Ibrahim Ungad, chief of Barangay New Labangan in Labangan town in Zamboanga del Sur, was shot as he was going out of his house in Barangay Tuburan here in Pagadian City, according to Lt. Col. Alvin Saguban, city police chief.

Two men approached Ungad and shot him once with an improvised 12-gauge shotgun. The assailants fled on a motorcycle towards Barangay Tiguma in the same city.

Ungad was taken to the Hofileña Hospital, where he declared dead on arrival.

/atm