Cebu town poll officer shot dead

Barili, Cebu (Google maps)

CEBU CITY — A lone gunman shot and killed an election officer in Barili town, about 58 kilometers south of Cebu City, on Monday afternoon.

Cris Flores, in his 50s, was standing outside his car near the public market in Barangay Poblacion, Barili past 1 p.m. when a man approached him and shot him in the head.

Flores was rushed to the Barili District Hospital but was declared dead on arrival.

The police were hunting down Mario “Gelmar” Timagos, a neighbor of Flores in Barangay Poblacion.

PO3 Gilbert Encabo of the Barili police station said Timagos was identified through the footage from the closed-circuit television camera installed at the Barili Public Market.

“He (Timagos) was not wearing any face mask,” he said.

Cebu Provincial Election supervisor Lionel Marco Castillano said in a phone interview that he was informed by the police that the killing might not be related to Flores’ work as election officer.

“For now, that is what the investigators say. But that is not definite yet. The details are still sketchy. We still have to validate the reports,” he said.  SFM