Barangay exec shot dead in Samar commercial area

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines–A barangay councilor was shot dead while waiting for his wife at a commercial district in Catbalogan City, Samar, Thursday night, police said Friday.

Narciso Lagbo, a barangay councilor of Tagbayaon, Jiabong town in Samar, was outside a store on Rique Street where his wife Daisy works as cashier, when he was shot by two men at about 6:20 p.m.

Police said Lagbo, 47, was serving his second term as barangay councilor of Tagbayaon, 15 kilometers away from the city proper of Catbalogan.

He was the second barangay official slain in Eastern Visayas less than a month before the Oct. 28 barangay polls.

On Sept. 25, Celso Malanquis, president of the Association of Barangay Councils in Inopacan, Leyte, and barangay captain of Conalong, was shot dead by a gunman while buying animal feed in the town.

Lagbo’s killing occurred four days after former village chief of Lagundi, Felimon Cabarriban, was gunned down while watching a cockfight in Catbalogan City on Sept. 30.

As with the two other killings, the police could not say if Lagbo’s murder was related to politics although it was one of the angles being looked into.

“We cannot say yet what could be the motive behind this killing of Lagbo but we are not ruling out the angle of politics considering that he is an incumbent barangay official,” said Inspector Romuel Nacar, Police Regional Office in Eastern Visayas (PRO-8) spokesperson.

Initial police reports said Lagbo was visiting Daisy, who was working at Charito’s, a store that sells local delicacies, when the killing occurred.

Lagbo was about to board his motorcycle while his wife went back to the store when two men approached him and shot him in the nape and hip.

He died on the spot.

The assailants split up after shooting Lagbo. One walked toward the market area while the other toward City Hall, said Nacar.

Investigators later recovered four empty shells of 9-mm pistol and .45 cal. pistol, he added.