A barangay chairman and three other persons were killed during separate incidents on Wednesday in Manila.
Arnel Parce, the chairman of Barangay 20, Parola, Tondo, was shot dead around 8 p.m. He was talking with a neighbor when two suspects on board a motorcycle stopped in front and shot him at close range.
Parce sustained multiple gunshot wounds in the head and face. Parce’s caretaker tried to fight the suspects, but was shot in the shoulder.
Meanwhile, three suspected drug pushers were killed during a buy-bust operation in Tondo after they allegedly engaged the Manila District Police in a gunfight.
The MPD identified the suspects as Rolando Campo, 60; Sherwin Vita, 24; and a certain alias “Kalbo”, all residents of Sta. Barbara Street, Tondo.
MPD Station 2 conducted the buy-bust at around noon Wednesday.
Police said they believe the motive for the killing was Parce’s support on the war on drugs of the government, or possibly due to politics.
Parce had mentioned death threats against him to his colleagues, investigators said.
Residents, however, said the police moved the angle of a CCTV camera installed nearby, as it failed to capture on video the transaction and the shootout. They alleged the suspects did not fight it out with the police.
The suspects were rushed to the Gat Andres Bonifacio Memorial Medical Center, but died upon arrival. Campo’s wife alleged that her husband was innocent.