Start of Samar poll slays feared

CALBAYOG CITY, Samar—Authorities are looking at politics as a motive in the killing of a village chief and a village councilor inside the barangay hall of Dagum village here on Wednesday.

Chief Supt. Marben Ordona, acting Calbayog police chief, said investigators are suspecting that the killing of Dagum village chief Rio Merencillo Lebario, 45, and village councilor Dionesio Tarrayo Lungsod, 55, is related to the killing of another village chief on Sunday.

On Sunday, an unidentified gunman shot and killed Edgar Dormiendo Belleza, 35 and village chief of Carayman, also in Calbayog, in Purok 3, Carayman.

Belleza belonged to the camp of Samar Gov. Sharee Ann Tan while Lebario and Lungsod were allies of Tan’s political rival, Calbayog Mayor Ronald Aquino.

Lebario was presiding over a meeting on the second floor of the barangay hall around 10:40 a.m. on Wednesday when two suspects barged in.

One of the assailants repeatedly shot Lebario while other officials of the village who were also in the hall during the attack hid under the conference table.

Lungsod ran to the adjacent office of the session hall but the gunmen chased and shot him.

A witness said the gunmen didn’t wear any cap or bonnet to cover their faces. They looked like they were in their 20s and were in T-shirt and shorts.