Another barangay councilman shot dead in Caloocan

Barely two days after a barangay councilman was shot dead in Caloocan City, a colleague was just as unlucky and met the same fate.

SPO1 Joselito Barredo, case investigator, said Rogelio Escaño, 53, was cooking in the kitchen of  a restaurant in Barangay 106, Grace Park, when  two men on a motorcycle arrived around 6:30 a.m.

One man got off the vehicle and barged inside the eatery where Escaño worked as a cook.

“There was a  gate that was open so the gunman just entered,” Barredo said.

Escaño was shot in the left eye and died immediately.

A police report said a bullet also pierced the front and back windshield of a Toyota Avanza, with plate number ZHZ-109, that was parked nearby.

The  two suspects escaped toward Rizal Ave. Extension on the motorcycle.

An empty shell from a .45 cal. pistol and a deformed bullet  were found on the crime scene.

Barredo said the police were still  trying to secure footage from a closed-circuit television camera installed at  a nearby establishment to help in their investigation.

He  said its owner had refused to provide the police with the footage.

Although the police have yet to determine a motive for the killing, Barangay 44 Chair Marc Merville Orozco believes  the incident may  not have been politically motivated but “possibly business-related.”

He said Escaño, who was on his second term as councilman and had worked  in the barangay council’s  peace and order committee, had no known enemies in the workplace.

Orozco added that the council sessions in the barangay were “peaceful.”

“We can’t think of anyone who might have wanted to harm Rod (in the workplace),” he said.

Orozco said the last time he and the victim spoke was on Thursday night when they talked about security preparations for the activities that were lined up for Sunday’s local fiesta celebration.

On the other hand, the barangay chair said it was possible somebody  felt “envious” of Escaño’s success in business.

He said the victim, who started out as a driver for the owner of the restaurant, later became its  cook and meat supplier.

On Wednesday night, Gary Moralla, Barangay 181 councilman, was shot by a man as he was walking home from a barangay meeting on Gemini Street.

Moralla was brought to a  hospital but he died later.

Last Monday, Eduardo Balanay, head of the city’s Department of Public Safaety amd Traffic Management, was cleaning a vacant lot in front of his house in Camarin when a man came up to him and shot him three times.

He was brought to a hospital where efforts to save him proved futile.

Caloocan Mayor Oscar Malapitan has offered a P200,000 cash reward to the policeman or unit that would be able to arrest the suspect(s) in the three incidents that took place this week, Gigi David, the city’s public information chief, said. With a report from Mark Ersan Ate