CALAPAN CITY, Oriental Mindoro – For refusing to drink a glass of gin offered to him, a barangay chairman was gunned down by a former political opponent recently in Barangay Maningcol of this town.
Senior Superintendent Christopher C. Birung, provincial director of Oriental Mindoro Police Provincial Office (PPO) said the victim was identified as Uldarico De Belen who is the incumbent barangay captain of Maningcol, Pinamalayan, Oriental Mindoro.
De Belen was passing through their street where 43-year-old suspect Victor F. Mahaguay was having a drinking session with a group of neighbors.
Mahaguay, a former barangay chairman in De Belen’s community, offered the victim a glass of gin which was turned down by the incumbent barangay official.
Mahaguay, apparently insulted by De Belen’s rebuff, pulled out his .45 caliber pistol and shot the victim five times.
De Belen was pronounced dead on arrival while Mahaguay surrendered less than an hour after the incident but without the gun he used in killing the official. (Jerry J. Alcayde)