Mindoro councilor, 6 others slain

A town councilor and his son as well as two men who have yet to be identified were shot dead in Oriental Mindoro and Pampanga yesterday.

Three persons, including an anti-drug operative, were also gunned down in Cagayan, Isabela and Cebu on Monday.

Melchor Arago, 52, councilor of Puerto Galera, was in his car parked near his house in Barangay Tabinay when motorcycle-riding men pulled over and opened fire.

The gunmen shot Arago’s son Kenneth, 15, when he went out of their house to check on his father when he heard gunshots.

Pursuit operations for the assailants are underway.

Mark Anthony Ventura of the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency-Cagayan Valley was riding a motorcycle driven by Jonathan Juan, 37, when they were shot in Barangay Pengue-Ruyu, Tuguegarao.

Ventura died at the scene. Juan was taken to the People’s General Hospital for treatment.

Probers said the motive for the killing could be workrelated.

Jenyo Semilla, 30, shot it out with policemen during a drug sting in Barangay Tinaan, Naga, Cebu, Superintendent Gergorio Galsim, city police chief, said.

Galsim said a .38-caliber revolver, four sachets of shabu and marked money were recovered from the fatality.

Farmer Regie Edrada was in a rice field in Barangay Minagbag, Quezon, Isabela when he was shot.

The bullet-riddled bodies of two men were dumped in a rice field in Barangay San Miguel, San Simon, Pampanga. The faces of the victims were wrapped in masking tape while their hands and feet were bound with a length of wire.