Cop shot dead in Lanao del Norte  

ILIGAN CITY, Philippines — A police corporal on his way to inspect security preparations at voting precincts in Kapatagan town in lanao del Norte was shot dead by two men riding in tandem on a motorcycle on Saturday, May 11, police said.

Police Corporal Richard Garcia Gordiones, 30, was at the vicinity of Barangay Panoloon of Sapad town, which is at the boundary to Kapatagan, when he was waylaid past 3 p.m., according to Police Colonel Rene Solidarios, director of the Lanao del Norte police on Sunday.

The policeman died before reaching the provincial hospital in Kapatagan, he said.

Solidarios said Gordiones, who was assigned at the Kapatagan police, was on patrol in the area as part of his assignment to provide security to the town’s voting centers for Monday’s elections when he was shot.

Solidarios however clarified that the killing was not election-related because prior to the shooting, Gordiones was warned by the Lanao del Norte police intelligence unit of a threat against him made by the family of a drug personality who was killed in an anti-drug police operation he was involved in.

Gordiones, a resident of Barangay Poblacion, Sultan Naga Dimaporo, Lanao del Norte, was with the police service for eight years. He was an operative of the Kapatagan police’s drug enforcement unit and had been active in anti-drug operation.

“He had several accomplishments as operative of the Municipal Drug Enforcement Unit. He had been warned that a family of a slain drug personality would retaliate and would get back at him,” Solidarios said in an interview. (Editor: Mike U. Frialde)