Puerto poll season turns bloody as 2 are dead

PUERTO PRINCESA CITY— Two men were killed in separate clashes on Thursday between supporters of opposing candidates for the city mayoral and congressional posts here, police said on Friday.

A police report identified the victims as supporters of Palawan congressional candidate Gil Acosta and mayoral candidate Lucilo Bayron, both of the Nationalist People’s Coalition (NPC), who are running against Liberal Party candidates Rep. Douglas Hagedorn of the third district and his brother, Edward Hagedorn, who is running for city mayor.

The report identified the fatalities in the separate clashes as Diosdado Basas, 31, and Alfredo Rodriguez. Both were identified with Bayron’s and Acosta’s group.

Basas was part of a group of motorcycle-riding men that clashed with Hagedorn supporters when they crossed paths on Thursday afternoon on a bridge along the national highway in Barangay Maoyon, just outside the city center.

Rodriguez, police said, led a group of 100 motorcycle riders that strayed into the territory of Hagedorn supporters in Barangay Sta. Lourdes around midnight of the same day.

Acting Puerto Princesa police chief Redentor Maranon told reporters the police were investigating the incident. He confirmed that the two cases involved supporters of the opposing political camps.

“We condemn the violence and we appeal to our political leaders to give us an assurance of peaceful elections,” Maranon said.

A Bayron campaigner who figured in the Sta. Lourdes incident told the Inquirer they were ambushed when they strayed into the territory of their rivals.

“We were responding to a report that one of our leaders (in Sta. Lourdes) was being harassed but we did not know where exactly we were supposed to go. It was too late when we realized we got lost and had ended up in the middle of a place full of Hagedorn supporters. We were attacked with stones and darts as we tried to flee,” said the campaigner, who asked not to be identified fearing for his life.

The source, who was wounded during the incident, said Rodriguez was leading their group that was looking for the house of another supporter.

Rodriguez had two stab wounds and head injury. His body was retrieved later by the police. Several others were wounded, Maranon said.

The same source told the Inquirer that most of the members of their group were motorcycle owners from towns in southern Palawan who joined them to collect their daily allowances, ranging from P500 to P1,500 including money for gasoline and meals.