Another mayor slain

Amotorcycle-riding assassin killed the mayor of General Tinio town of Nueva Ecija when he repeatedly shot his vehicle in Cabanatuan City Tuesday afternoon, the second local chief executive assassinated in just a span of two days.

The assassination of Mayor Ferdinand Bote occurred a day after Tanauan City (Batangas) Mayor Antonio Halili was killed while attending a flag-raising ceremony in front of their city hall.

Director General Oscar Albayalde, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP), said the 57-year-old Bote was declared dead on arrival at the MV Gallego Hospital in Cabanatuan City.

Bote was on board his car, a Toyota Fortuner with license plate AAB 2020, and was reportedly on his way home after visiting a regional office of the National Irrigation Administration (NIA), when a lone gunman reportedly shot the window of the front passenger seat where he was sitting.

A closed-circuit television (CCTV) footage on the main entrance of the NIA compound showed that the car where Mayor Bote was aboard had just gone out of a compound of a government agency and made a brief stop before going to the Maharlika Highway when a lone gunman repeatedly shot the car.

The CCTV footage also showed that Mayor Bote’s driver was still able to drive the car away from the gunman.