Aspirant for village council seat in Cotabato province slain in gun attack

File photo of Rhoyden Matt Clarence Flores | PHOTO: Dondon Balacanan/Pikit, Cotabato

PIKIT, Cotabato — Another aspirant in the barangay and Sangguniang Kabataan elections this October was killed Wednesday by two men riding in tandem on a motorbike in this town.

Rhoyden Matt Clarence Flores, 36, was buying vegetables at a roadside store in Barangay Takepan, when one of two men shot him from behind at past 4 p.m., according to Major Arvin John Cambang, Pikit municipal police chief.

Flores is seeking a seat in the barangay council of Takepan, where he is a resident and a registered voter.

He died on the spot from bullet wounds in the head and body. Responding police found empty shells for a caliber .45 pistol at the crime scene.

Police probers are uncertain if the killing was related to the coming polls or his active involvement in village peacekeeping duties.

Flores is the second aspirant for a village seat slain in a gun attack in Cotabato in the past seven days.

On August 28, gunmen shot dead Haron Dimalanis, 50, a candidate for village chair of Barangay Malingao, Midsayap town while at the town plaza taking his lunch after filing his candidacy. His aide was also injured.

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