Camarines Norte gov claims assassins are after him

NAGA CITY, Philippines—Camarines Norte Governor Edgardo Tallado claimed Saturday he was the target of would-be assassins who seriously wounded his security officer on Friday evening.

The governor said his security officer, retired policeman Ronnie Bardon, was in critical condition after he was mistaken for him and was shot  by two gunmen while he was traveling in the governor’s SUV on a road in the provincial capital of Daet shortly after 6 p.m.

Bardon was able to fire back and killed one of the gunmen, according to Tallado.

“The two suspects had been trailing our  car since Friday morning on our way to Paracale for the multi-services caravan of the provincial government,” said Tallado in a phone interview Saturday.

Tallado said he was at the Governor’s Office at the provincial capitol when the ambush took place. He said the attackers could have mistakenly assumed that he was in the vehicle.

The incident took place just a hundred meters from the Camarines Norte Police Office, according to the governor.

Senior Superintendent Roberto Fajardo, officer in charge of Camarines Norte Police Office, said Bardon was attacked by gunmen riding tandem on a red motorcycle in Barangay Lag-on, Daet at around 6:15 p.m.

Bardon was in Tallado’s Nissan Urvan when he was fired upon by the assailants and was hit in the head and shoulder, said Fajardo.

Bardon managed to return fire, killing one of the gunmen,  but the other who was driving the motorcycle managed to escape, Fajardo added.

The dead man remained unidentified, Fajardo said.

Tallado said suspicious looking men had been trailing him even before the incident. He added that the motive of the gunmen could be his all-out campaign against illegal drugs in the province although he was not discounting politics as a possible motive.

Investigation was ongoing as checkpoints were set up all over the province to track down the other assailant, believed to be a professional assassin, said Tallado.

The Daet town police is providing 24-hour security watch over Bardon, he said.