Manila village chief slain
A barangay chairman was gunned down minutes after he stepped out of an anti-illegal drug seminar in Manila yesterday afternoon.
Barangay 330, Zone 33 chairman Angel Joy Rivero was riding his Yamaha motorcycle (ND34922) and about to turn right at the corner of Burgos and Ma. Orosa streets when two men on a motorcycle shot him at around 1:50 p.m., according to Police Officer 3 Ferdinand Leyva, Manila Police District (MPD) Station 5 investigator.
Rivero died at the scene from two gunshot wounds in the head.
Leyva said two bullet casings, “possibly from a .45 caliber pistol,” were recovered at the scene.
He said they are going to request closed-circuit television footages from establishments Rivero passed to determine if the victim had been followed after leaving the restaurant where the seminar was being held.
Sangguniang Kabataan chairman Vergel Francisco told The
STAR that Rivero and other barangay officials were attending the seminar in a restaurant at the corner of Ma. Orosa street and UN Avenue when he suddenly left.
“He just told me that he was going to attend a meeting at the city hall. He didn’t have a bodyguard,” Rivero said.
Francisco said Rivero was an anti-illegal drug advocate but they do not know if he had enemies.
A source at the MPD said it is possible that the killing of Rivero and Barangay 314 secretary Julio Turla, another official known to be an anti-illegal drug advocate, could be related.
Turla was sitting in front of the barangay hall when an unidentified man shot him twice on Aug. 23.
Kagawad Hilda Turla, the victim’s sister, said he served as
kagawad or councilman for 11 years before he was tapped to be the barangay’s secretary.
He was also the personal driver of Barangay 314 chairwoman Aileen Guidoting.