CALAPAN CITY—A former vice mayor of a neighboring municipality was shot dead by two unidentified gunmen riding on a motorcycle at dusk on Saturday, amid fears of the growing unsolved murder cases in Oriental Mindoro province.
Killed on the spot was former Vice Mayor Wilson Viray, 51, also a former town councilor of nearby Naujan municipality, southwest of this capital city.
Initial police reports said Viray was on his way home to Barangay Sampaguita on board a pickup truck from his farm in Barangay Sto. Nino when a motorcycle blocked his vehicle. An unidentified gunman alighted from the motorcycle and peppered Viray with bullets.
Viray suffered six gunshot wounds to his body from a still-unknown type of firearm. The gunman spared Viray’s Mangyan companion.
According to his supporters, Viray was not involved in any wrongdoing before he was ambushed. He ran for the same position under the opposition United Nationalist Alliance in the local election last May, but lost.
Two sensational murder cases here that happened in August and October remain unsolved.
A young jobless female, Quency de los Reyes, 29, was murdered on August 6 in this city inside the house of a barangay councilor, Leo Macalalad, and three other suspected accomplices. Macalalad is facing a murder charge while the other suspects are free and still moving around the city.
Last October 9, anti-crime crusader Zenaida M. Luz was ambushed in front of her house in Barangay Quinabigan at Gloria town.
Two police chiefs, Chief Inspector Mark Almeranez of Calapan City and Senior Inspector Magdaleno Pimentel of San Teodoro municipality, were tagged as principal suspects in Luz’s killing.
Almeranez and Pimentel were wounded during a gunbattle with members of the Gloria Police Station, headed by Chief Inspector Ruelito Fronda.
When Gloria policemen, led by Fronda, approached the wounded suspects, they found Almeranez wearing a wig, while Pimentel was wearing a ski mask. Also recovered were bullets, a motorcycle they used as their getaway vehicle, pistols and other paraphernalia.
Oriental Mindoro Provincial Police Director Christopher Birung said investigators are still looking into the motive of the two former police chiefs in killing Luz.