Village exec shot dead in Masbate

NAGA CITY—Another murder took place in Masbate just eight days before Christmas.

Victim Roberto dela Pisa, 54, a councilor of Barangay Manlot-od in Placer town, was shot dead in front of his wife by three still unidentified gunmen at about noon on Dec. 18, said Insp. Joseph Millares, Placer police chief.

Millares said Dela Pisa and his wife were traversing a secluded, hilly portion of a dirt road in Manlot-od aboard a motorcycle when they were attacked.

The gunmen asked the councilor and his wife to get off. Then they shot the town official on different parts of his body, causing his death. But they spared his wife, Millares said.

The motive for the killing is yet to be determined by police investigators.

Placer Mayor Joshur Judd Lanete, however, said politics was behind the murder. He declined to elaborate.

The shooting incident came just seven days after a man was shot dead while transacting inside a pawnshop in Masbate City.

Eussel Bulanon, 33, of Barangay Poblacion in Cataingan town, Masbate, was filling out a customer information sheet inside a branch of M. Lhuillier when he was attacked by a gunman armed with a .45 cal. pistol at about 7:30 a.m., said Senior Supt. Heriberto Olitoquit, acting police director of Masbate.

Bulanon suffered a bullet wound in the head, which killed him on the spot.  Jonas Cabiles Soltes, Inquirer Southern Luzon