Anakpawis member shot dead near his house in Davao City

DAVAO CITY — Motorcycle-riding gunmen shot and killed a member of the Anakpawis party-list group in an upland village here on Saturday, activists on Sunday said.

Jay Apiag, Karapatan Southern Mindanao spokesperson, said Apolonio Maranan, 64, was gunned down outside his home in DDF Village, in Mandug past 7 p.m.

Maranan, an active campaigner of Anakpawis Rep. Ariel Casilao in the 2016 elections, was on his way to buy food for dinner at a nearby store when several gunshots rang out.

Quoting the victim’s wife, Apiag said Apolonio’s son, who had been asked by his wife to check on him, found the 64-year old man sprawled on the ground and bloodied.

The victim died on the spot.

Senior Insp. Ma. Teresita Gaspan, spokesperson of the Davao City Police Office, confirmed the incident.

Gaspan said they were still investigating the affiliation of the victim and the possible identities of the perpetrators and the motive behind the killing.

Apiag said they suspected that agents of the Army’s 16th Infantry Battalion could be behind the killing, although he did not provide details.

He said Maranan was the 54th victim of political killings in Southern Mindanao under President Rodrigo Duterte’s administration.

“In SMR (Southern Mindanao Region), Duterte’s bloodlust is aggravating; killing his kababayan [townmate] in full-scale is Duterte’s very own version of tapang at malasakit [courage and care],” Apiag said, in an apparent dig at the administration’s political slogan. –Frinston Lim /atm