Ex-village chief who exposed ghost road project in Samar killed

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CALBAYOG CITY, Samar, Philippines — The former barangay (village) chairman, who exposed a ghost project in Catbalogan City in Samar, was shot and killed by a lone assailant shortly before noon on Sunday.

Filomeno Cabarriban was watching a cock fight in Gallera de Catbalogan in Catbalogan about 11 a.m. when an unidentified man shot him in the back.

The gunman then joined his two companions in fleeing to the mountains, said Acidre. The victim was brought to the Samar Provincial Hospital where he was declared dead on  arrival.

The bullet exited from the chest, killing him on the spot, said Senior Supt. Roel Acidre, Samar police director.

The police, however, had yet to determine the motive in the killing although investigators were not dismissing the possibility that it was related to politics, especially because he had been receiving death threats.

Cabarriban was a former village chief of Lagundi. His wife is the incumbent barangay chairman. He was a supporter of former Catbalogan Mayor Coefredo Uy, a political rival of the Tans, an influential political dynasty in Samar. Members of the political clan occupy the highest elective positions in the province.

His killing also came a week after he exposed a ghost project in his village.

Cabarriban had told the Philippine Daily Inquirer that he had not seen any project that either repaired or rehabilitated the road from Barangay Lagundi to adjacent Barangay Pena, which was supposedly funded by the Priority Development Assistance Fund of Rep. Milagros Tan of Samar’s  2nd district.

According to the Department of Budget and Management (DBM), P35 million of Tan’s PDAF was released in February.

Of the amount, P11.350 million was allocated for the road repair/rehabilitation from the villages of Lagundi to Pena in Catbalogan City.

“Since January of this year 2013. I have not seen any road repair from Lagundi to Pena,” Cabarriban earlier told the Inquirer.