Pangasinan politician, wife slain in Manila

LINGAYEN, Pangasinan -– After surviving an ambush last year in Binmaley town, the former vice mayor of this capital town and his wife, the chair of Barangay Poblacion here, were shot and killed by a lone gunman in front of their apartment in Manila on Wednesday night, police said.

Superintendent Rolando Balasabas, chief of the Manila Police District’s Station 4, said former Lingayen Vice Mayor Ramon Arcinue and his wife, Zorahayda, were shot at close range after they alighted from their vehicle and were about to enter their apartment on Maceda Street in Sampaloc, Manila, at 10:30 p.m.

“The wife was already in front of the apartment’s door when she was shot,” Balasabas said in a telephone interview on Thursday.

Balasabas said the couple, who had bullet wounds in their heads, died while undergoing treatment at the University of Santo Tomas Hospital.

He said other members of the family were in their Honda CRV but none of them was shot by the gunman, who was armed with a .45-caliber pistol.

The gunman, initial police and tv news reports said, had waited for the couple as some residents saw him in the neighborhood as early as 8 p.m.

Balasabas said the assailant, after shooting the Arcinues, walked toward España Street and got on a bus bound for Quezon City.

In March last year, the Arcinues were wounded when they were shot by two men on a motorcycle in Binmaley, Pangasinan. They were in their car  on their way home from Dagupan City when they were attacked.

Balasabas said he would coordinate with the Pangasinan police to gather additional information to determine the motive for the attack.