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Ex-La Union Rep. Eriguel killing politically motivated, says solon's wife
La Union Representative Sandra Eriguel on Monday blamed the killing of her husband, former Representative Dr. Eufranio "Franny" Eriguel, on politics and urged authorities to fast-track their investigation on his death.
In a privilege speech, Sandra narrated the events that led to the death of her husband and two of their bodyguards in a May 12 shooting perpetrated by armed men in Barangay Capas, Agoo, La Union.
She said days before the shooting, their police security detail were pulled out one by one. The order, according to Eriguel, came from Chief Superintendent Romulo Sapitula, regional director of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Regional Office 1.
She added that the Barangay Chairman of Capas also wrote a letter dated May 7 to Agoo Police Chief Alfredo Padilla Jr. requesting for police assistance during the meeting de avance to be held in the said barangay on May 12.
Eufranio would be delivering a speech in the said meeting de avance. Padilla, however, did not act upon the request.
Later that night, Eufranio was shot dead, sustaining eight gunshot wounds on his head, chest, arm and leg.
"Congressman Franny’s murder was politically motivated. There is no other angle but politics. He was never involved in drugs, despite what his detractors would lead us to believe," Sandra lamented.
"He was a doctor, a principled man, who like many of you, did all in his power to eradicate drugs in our community. He believed that drugs destroyed futures, destroyed families," she added.
Sandra also pinned the blame on Sapitula and Padilla whose acts compromised the security of her husband and eventually led him to be vulnerable to attacks.
"I ask that as legislators, we look into the actions of the PNP, days before the brutal and cowardly murder of my husband. This was an attack on one of your colleagues, an attack on a fellow public servant, an attack on our institution and the people of our district," she said.
"We can prevent this type of murder from being committed again. This was done by people who have no chance of winning at a fair fight," she added.
Eriguel called on the PNP and the National Bureau of Investigation to hasten their investigation and unmask the perpetrators of the her husband's killing including its mastermind.
"As long as they remain unidentified, my life and the life of my children will always be at risk," she said.
Authorities have already arrested Felizardo Villanueva, one of the suspects in Eufranio's killing, and charged him with three counts of murder. — BAP, GMA News
This article has been updated to correct an earlier paragraph saying that Chief Supt. Romulo Sapitula had been relieved over the killing of former Rep. Eufranio Eriguel. We regret the error.
