Hired killers behind shooting of Isabela town mayor — police

Hired killers were behind the murder in Quezon City of a re-electionist mayor from Isabela, police said Wednesday. Three suspects are already in custody and three more are being sought. According to reporter Chino Gaston on GMA News TV’s Quick Response Team, Christian Pajenado, Michael Domingo, Mary Grace Malones-Abduhadi and three others are suspected of killing Maconacon, Isabela, Mayor Erlinda Domingo. Domingo was shot dead as she was about to check in at the Park Villa Apartelle on Examiner Street in Quezon City on Tuesday evening. She was in the city for a summit of local government units from Isabela which was organized every quarter. Her driver, Bernard Plasos, was wounded in the incident. Domingo was seeking to run for another term when she was killed, according to reports. Isabela Gov. Faustino Dy III said Domingo was a kind person who had no known enemies. Meanwhile, Interior Secretary Mar Roxas II ordered the Philippine National Police to investigate all the angles behind Domingo’s death, noting that she was not the first mayor from her town to be killed. In May 2009, Francisco Talosig was shot in Tuguegarao, Cagayan. He slipped into a coma and died in October that year. “Nakakapagtaka lang po na ang malayong bayan ng Maconacon—isang bayan sa dalampasigan ng Isabela na nakaharap na sa Dagat Pasipiko—sa loob ng tatlong taon ay dalawang mayor ang binaril,” Roxas said. “Ang punto po dito, hindi ito ang kauna-unahang beses na nagkaroon ng pagpaslang ng mayor ng Maconacon. Nais nating malaman kung isolated events ba ito o kunektado ito,” he also said. The PNP said Domingo’s killing could possibly be the first suspected case of election-related violence in Metro Manila, though spokesman Chief Superintendent Generoso Cerbo, Jr. said this would still have to be validated. — Gian C. Geronimo/BM, GMA News