EMPTY The barong Tagalog, belt and black pants of Rofoldo Dacol are displayed in his assigned seat during the oath-taking ceremony of newly elected village and youth council members in Pagadian City on Thursday. Dacol, who won as village chief of Lapedian, was slain on Wednesday night. —LEAH D. AGONOY
PAGADIAN CITY—Five newly elected barangay officials, four of them from Mindanao, were killed in separate attacks a week following the conclusion of the village and youth elections on Oct. 30, according to the Philippine National Police.
The most recent case involved Rofoldo Dacol, newly elected village chief of Lapedian here, who was gunned down at 6:30 p.m. on Wednesday just outside his house.
As Dacol was about to park the barangay-owned tricycle earlier used to transport a patient, an unidentified gunman approached and shot him, Police Lt. Col. Rex Perocho, chief of the Zamboanga del Sur Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, said.
Lory Carillo, Dacol’s relative, said they were inside the house preparing dinner when they heard a gunshot and the victim’s cry for help. Relatives took the bloodied Dacol to the city infirmary in Barangay Danlugan and later to the Aisah Hospital, where an attending doctor declared him dead.
Dacol served as a barangay councilor when he decided to run as village chief in the recent elections. His son Fraynald, a newly elected member of the youth council, said his father had received death threats before the elections but they just brushed off the information.Reserved seat
During the joint oathtaking ceremony of newly elected village and youth officials who were allied with Mayor Samuel Co on Thursday, a seat was still reserved for Dacol. In his stead, his barong Tagalog was placed on the chair while his belt and black pants were displayed on the table. The crowd also gave a minute of silence to honor Dacol.
Co, who openly supported Dacol, said he was aware of the victim’s struggle as a challenger to the incumbent village chief. He said police had yet to determine the reason behind the attack but “with Dacol being known as a good man … we only see politics as the possible motive.”
Among the city’s 54 barangays, only Lapedian was considered an area of concern by the Commission on Elections, with reports of harassments from the two opposing parties, prompting the city to request a security detachment in the area manned by teams of police and soldiers. But a few days after the elections, the security teams were pulled out and given another assignment, said Lt. Col. Terence Ylanan, 53rd Infantry Battalion commander.
In a press briefing in Camp Crame on Wednesday, PNP spokesperson Col. Jean Fajardo said that apart from Dacol, they recorded six other violent incidents with six victims—two involving newly elected village chiefs and four village councilors—since Oct. 31.
Among the dead were Paul Albert Saquian, the new village chief of Datu Abdul Dadia in Panabo City, Davao del Norte, who was gunned down while heading home on Nov. 7; newly elected barangay councilor Edmar Perero of Barangay Dolores in Antipas town, Cotabato, who was shot dead while on board a tricycle on Nov. 7; newly elected barangay councilor Lina Camacho of Barangay 37, Pasay City, who was shot dead while inside the barangay hall on Nov. 6; and Suharto Antillino who was gunned down on Nov. 1 by a still unidentified suspect shortly after he was proclaimed as among the winning members of the village council of Barangay Poblacion in Midsayap town, Cotabato.
Two other barangay officials were wounded in Northern Mindanao and Calabarzon (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal, Quezon) regions, Fajardo said.
She said the PNP would monitor the postelection security situation until the end of the election period on Nov. 29.
Continuous monitoring“We are giving our regional directors and field commanders the discretion to determine if they would lower their alert status [from the highest full alert status], particularly their security deployment in areas where we see the situation could still be violent even after the election,” she added.
In Panabo City, Davao del Norte Rep. Alan Dujali has offered P500,000 in reward for those who could provide authorities with information that would help in arresting the two suspects in the killing of Saquian.
According to the PNP, the number of “validated” incidents related to the Oct. 30 polls has almost doubled compared with the figure during the village polls in 2018.
A total of 77 confirmed incidents nationwide, with 19 people killed and 66 injured, had been recorded as of Wednesday. Of these, the majority were reported in the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (39), Northern Mindanao (10) and Cordillera (5).
During the 2018 village polls, only 40 validated incidents were reported, which was lower than the 57 recorded in 2015.
No confirmed incidents were recorded in Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Davao and Caraga regions.
This year’s figures could go higher as there were 44 “suspected” incidents being investigated.