Second man identified with town mayor shot dead North Cotabato

MLANG, North Cotabato, Philippines—An unidentified assailant shot Friday night another man closely identified with Mlang Mayor  Mayor Joselito Piñol but the police would still not say categorically that the shooting, along with the killing three days earlier of another person closely identified with the mayor, was politically motivated.

Inspector Rolando Dillera,  Mlang police chief, said Eddie Pedregosa, a close-in bodyguard of Piñol’s, was walking with his wife to their house when he was attacked at 10:50 p.m.

Pedregosa was dead on arrival at a hospital in the neighboring town of Makilal but his wife was unhurt, Dillera said. He said Pedregosa died from a single shot to the chest.

“The victim’s wife saw the attack, however, she said she could not identify the [assailant] because he wore a mask and the place… was dark,” Dillera said.

He said the police recovered from the crime scene bullet shells  fired from a .45-caliber pistol, the same type of gun used in the killing of Jerry Parrondo, who used to be on Piñol’s staff, last Tuesday. He too was killed by a lone assailant while he was tending his grocery store at the Mlang public market.

The assailant casually walked away as Parrondo’s two children frantically cried for help.

Piñol urged the police to look deeper into the two killings to determine if they were related and if they had something to do with politics.

“The police should also exert all means to identify and arrest the perpetrators,” he said.

Dillera police had some leads in the two cases but he would not say what these were. Neither would he say if the two killings were connected  to each other or if they were politically motivated.