More cops to be sent to Ilocos after attacks linked to polls

SAN FERNANDO CITY—Police in the Ilocos region are sending more men to Ilocos Norte and La Union to secure these areas following recent killings of candidates there in the May elections.

Supt. Jovencio Badua, information officer of the regional police, said Chief Supt. Ricardo Marquez, Ilocos police director, has ordered the deployment of members of the Regional Public Safety Battalion to La Union, but the towns where they will be assigned are still being determined.

La Union is among the 15 provinces identified by the Department of the Interior and Local Government as election areas of concern.

Badua said Marquez gave the La Union police up to yesterday to decide which towns need more policemen.

Three platoons of 30 policemen each will be assigned to La Union. On Sunday night, a candidate in this city was shot and killed by unidentified gunmen in his house in Barangay Bangcusay.

Badua said Danilo Nisperos, 59, who was running for councilor under the National Unity Party, died while undergoing treatment at a hospital here.

On Oct. 29 last year, lawyer Lazaro Gayo, a former vice mayor of Tubao town and a candidate for La Union provincial board, was shot at his law office in Agoo town. He died the following day.

Two murder cases involving Tubao barangay officials, Rodolfo Estoque and Jose Viduya, were also reported in October.

In Ilocos Norte, Badua said the Feb. 23 murder of Alfred Arce, a mayoral candidate in Marcos town, was politically motivated. Yolanda Sotelo, Inquirer Norther Luzon