Task Force Mondia formed, politics eyed in killing
Police have yet to determine the motive and the identity of the two suspects in the killing of a mayoralty candidate in Pulupandan, Negros Occidental Wednesday night in Jaro, Iloilo City, but one thing is certain: the suspects are hired assassins.
This was declared by Senior Supt. Cornelio Defensor, chief of the Regional Intelligence Division of Police Regional Office 6, in an interview with the media at the sidelights of the emergency meeting of the Regional Joint Security Control Center (RJSCC) relative to the incident.
Defensor said the manner by which the killing was executed could be a handiwork of gun for hires.
RJSCC created Task Force Mondia headed by Regional Operations and Plans Division chief Senior Supt. Ricardo Dela Paz to bring justice to the killing of former Pulupandan mayor and now mayoralty candidate Luis Mondia Jr., 53.
Mondia’s wife Evelinda earlier said that politics could be behind her husband’s killing.
Evelinda with her husband and their granddaughter were approaching their service vehicle after attending the Ash Wednesday mass at the Jaro Cathedral around 6 p.m. when a lone gunman draw near then shot the victim at close range.
Mondia is running against incumbent Pulupandan Mayor Magdaleno Peña. Both candidates are independent.
Commission on Elections (Comelec) regional director Atty. Dennis Ausan confirmed that Pulupandan is included in the list of election areas of concern here in Western Visayas.
Ausan cited as basis of including Pulupandan in the election watchlist the ambush incident involving Peña after the 2007 election.
Peña survived the ambush with injuries but his two bodyguards were killed. He pointed to the Mondias as responsible for the ambush. The victim’s brother Samson ran against Peña in 2007 but lost.
In an interview with Aksyon Radyo Iloilo, Peña denied having to do with Mondia’s killing.
“Nga-a ipapatay ko sya? He’s not even a threat to my reelection bid,” Peña said, adding “he was killed there in Iloilo, basi may mga kontra da sya.”
“My conscience is clear. Nakibot lang ko gani sang ginpahibalo ako sang natabo sa iya dira sa Iloilo,” Peña added.
Meanwhile, the witness, a pedicab driver and barangay tanod of Brgy. San Vicente, Jaro, said the gunman does not have any cover on his face while his companion, on board a motorcycle, waited from afar when the former executed the killing.
The Task Force Mondia sought the help of the National Bureau of Investigation to come out with a cartographic sketch of the suspects.
Mondia succumbed to three fatal gunshot wounds at the hospital about four hours after the incident.
Police recovered empty shells of .45 caliber pistol at the scene of the crime.
