Police tags shooting in Dumanjug town as election related

Senior Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas (back to camera) presides over the validation committee for election-related incidents meeting at the Police Regional Office conference room. (CDN PHOTO/JUNJIE MENDOZA)

THE shooting incident in Dumanjug town last Sunday was election related.

This was the assessment yesterday of the Committee on Validation of Election-Related Incident of the Police Regional Office Central Visayas (PRO-7), which met yesterday.

“It satisfies the parameters. The victims are supporters of a political candidate. Then, even before the incident, there was already a tension brewing in

Dumanjug (western Cebu),” said Senior Supt. Rey Lyndon Lawas, deputy regional director for operations of PRO-7.

He said that although it did not disrupt the election, there was already a political tension in the town.

Lawas said the assessment will be used as basis in the next elections if the town will be included in the election watchlist.

The committee’s decision was also based on the results of the investigation conducted by the chief of police of the area, as well as their specific recommendations.

According to Lawas, he has already instructed the police force of Dumanjug to pursue the conduct of the investigation regarding the incident and to update the regional police of its progress.

On May 8, Sunday, supporters of Dumanjug Mayor-elect Efren “Gungun” Gica and outgoing Mayor Nelson Garcia were involved in a shooting incident a few meters away from Garcia’s ancestral home in Barangay Ylaya.

According to a report, the shooting involved two unidentified men riding separate motorcycles firing at Ely Amadora, a One Cebu member, and his companion, also riding a motorcycle heading toward Garcia’s ancestral house.

Marlon Ybanez, a Gica supporter who was checking on an alleged vote-buying incident in the area, blocked the two motorcycles with his Toyota Revo, and somebody got off the vehicle and fired at the men on the motorcycles.

However, armed men inside Garcia’s house also fired at the Revo, wounding Ybanez.

FIVE OTHER AREAS ASSESSED

Five other places in the region were also assessed by the committee composed of police officers.

Hostile incidents in Carcar City, Ronda, Madridejos and Santa Fe were also assessed by the committee as election related.

Lawas, however, said he couldn’t recall the specific incidents, but recommendations from the police chiefs of these towns qualified these incidents as election related.

The recommendation of the police chief of Loboc, Bohol province, of hostile incidents, however, was not accepted by the committee and was deemed not election related.

Despite being not election related, Lawas did instruct all the chief of police to consider the incidents during their formulation of security plans in the next election.

He added that investigations are still ongoing on all the towns and cities validated.