Killing of Rizal village chief ‘not poll-related,’ cops say

SAN PEDRO CITY – The killing of a village captain in San Mateo, Rizal just days before the barangay and youth council elections could not count as an election-related violence, a police official said on Friday.

Supt. Serafin Petalio II, the chief of the Antipolo City police that investigates the slay of Danilo Cacanando, said they
were convinced that a “personal grudge over a property dispute” was more likely the motive in the killing.

Cacanando, the village chief of Pintong Bukawe in San Mateo town, was gunned down around 12:40 p.m. Thursday along Marcos
Highway in Barangay Inarawan, Antipolo City.

The police said he was in Antipolo City that day to have his vehicle fixed when motorcycle-riding gunmen shot him dead.

Cacanando was on his last term as village captain and had fielded his wife to take over the post in the May 14 elections.

“And then it was a ‘kumare’ that the wife was running against, so it was very unlikely that the killing was politically
motivated,” Petalio added.

He said they were close to identifying suspects but declined to disclose any more information so as not to preempt the
investigation.

“Assassins think this might be a good timing in order to divert police investigation and make it look like election-
related,” he said.