URBIZTONDO Mayor Ernesto Balolong Jr. (right) and his son, Councilor Volter Balolong, answer questions at a news conference in a photo taken in November 2013 after his release from detention at the National Bureau of Investigation office in Manila. GABRIEL CARDINOZA / Inquirer N. Luzon
LINGAYEN, Philippines — Police here on Sunday announced the arrest of two suspects in the murder of Urbiztondo Mayor Ernesto Balolong Jr. and two others, and the wounding of four others in Urbiztondo town in Pangasinan province on Saturday.
Senior Superintendent Sterling Raymund Blanco, provincial police director, identified the suspects as Eduardo de Guzman, 65, and Marito Sarmiento, 38, both residents of Bugallon town.
“We are now in the process of conducting background investigation on the suspects,” said Blanco in a news conference here.
Blanco said policemen arrested De Guzman and Sarmiento in Barangay (village) Salomague Sur in Bugallon town as they were about to leave a motorcycle repair shop there on Saturday afternoon.
Balolong and his police security detail, Police Officer 1 Eliseo Ulanday, and supermarket electrician, Edmund Meneses, were standing at the back of the Urbiztondo convention center, which also houses the CSI Supermarket just across Balolong’s house, when armed men alighted from a car and opened fire.
Balolong was there to inspect the venue for the reception of his 25th wedding anniversary and the wedding of his son, Councilor Volter Balolong, that was supposed to be held on Sunday, June 8.
Injured were Balolong’s aide, Rex Ferrer, 52; Jose Vigilia, 18, and Jimboy Palisoc, 19, both supermarket employees; and Rogelio Esguerra, 46, a taho (soy drink) vendor.
Blanco said a witness, who helped police investigators trace the escape route of the suspects, identified De Guzman and Sarmiento as the two men who first alighted from a Toyota Innova car.
The car was later found abandoned along the provincial road in Barangay Caoayan Kiling in San Carlos City.
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