Vice mayor of Leyte town shot dead

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines—The vice mayor of the town of Villaba in Leyte was shot and killed by two assailants Monday morning.

Vice Mayor Claudio Martin Larrazabal was shot outside a restaurant and bar which he owned in Barangay (village) Del Norte around 11:45 a.m. by gunmen on a motorcycle, Villaba Mayor Jorge Veloso told the Philippine Daily Inquirer in a telephone interview.

At least seven bullets were fired at the vice mayor, one hitting him in the heart, Veloso said.

Veloso had no other details, however.

“But I immediately instructed our police here to probe this killing and arrest the perpetrators,” Veloso said.

Larrazabal was mayor of Villaba, 115 kilometers away from Tacloban, for nine years before running as vice mayor of Villaba during the 2013 elections.

Mayor Veloso said that based on a sketchy report, the vice mayor was on his way to a restaurant-bar he owned when the two assailants, riding on a motorcycle, stopped near Larrazabal and shot him several times.

The two men immediately fled towards the nearby town of Palompon.

Mayor Veloso said that Larrazabal was first brought to a hospital in the town before he was brought to the Ormoc Sugarcane Planters Association-Farmers Medical Center, 40 kilometers away from Villaba town.

At around 1 p.m., his attending physicians declared him dead on arrival.

Mayor Veloso said that as of this posting, the police authorities were investigating the killing of Larrazabal, a cousin of former Commission on Elections commissioner Gregorio Larrazabal.

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