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strong>Mayors, lawyers, priest, treasurer among victims

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union—Though the problem of insurgency was almost nil in 2007, many sensational crimes nevertheless rocked the region, causing so much concern among the population.

Victims of the sensational crimes that hogged the pages of newspapers included two mayors, a vice mayor, one councilor, three lawyers, a priest and a municipal treasurer.

The major murders reconfirmed public apprehension that there are still too many loose guns in the hands of the civilian population in the four provinces of Pangasinan, La Union, Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte.

The mayor-fatalities were Julian Resuello of San Carlos City who was killed along with his bodyguard Eulogio Martinez on April 28 during a coronation night at the city auditorium, and Philip Velasco of Bacarra, Ilocos Norte, who was killed along with Councilor Marcelo Andaya while watching a farmers’ festival at the town plaza on May 20.

Police said the slaying of Resuello and his bodyguard was only half-solved as only one of the two suspected gunmen, Angelito Soriano, has been arrested and charged. The other suspect, Cesar de Guzman, alias Cabeza, is still at-large.

The incident which happened during the election period when the three-term Mayor Resuello was running for vice mayor in tandem with his son Julier who was running for mayor, prompted the Commission on Elections to put the city under its control in the May 14 polls.

On the other hand, the police claimed that the slaying of Mayor Velasco and Councilor Andaya was already solved with the suspects already arrested and charged.

The lone vice mayor killed was Bonie Apilado, 35, pf San Manuel, Pangasinan who was shot dead in Urdaneta City on June 20. His driver, Ricardo Clemente, 24, was wounded in that incident.
Pangasinan Police Director Isagani Nerez said the slaying of
Apilado who lost in the mayoralty race in the May 14 polls, was already solved.

The police however have yet to arrest or name the mastermind even as politics was widely hinted at as behind the killing, especially among the vice mayor’s relatives and supporters. .

Also solved was the slaying of Fr. Florante Rigonan, parish priest of St. Isidore Church in barangay Valbuena, Pinili, Ilocos Norte, who was shot dead in barangay Puritao, Pinili, Ilocos Norte after having dinner with one of his parishioners.

Several persons were arrested by the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group and the Ilocos Norte Police for the priest’s slay.

The slaying may have something to do with the donation made to the church by a rich couple from the U.S. to the parish priest, which the couple’s relatives may have resented.

Still unsolved was the slaying Felicidad Picar, municipal treasurer of Bauang, La Union on August 6, 2007, which many suspect to have stemmed from the past May 14 elections.

Also unsolved were the slaying of lawyers Conrado “Pacpac” Soriano, 54, in downtown San Carlos City on August 28, 2007; and Atty. Alejo Dojillo, Ombudsman investigator on September 10 in San Fabian town.

Both of these cases have not yet been solved yet as no less than the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Pangasinan chapter appealed to the police and the NBI sometime in late September to speed up the investigation on the slaying of Soriano and Dojillo.

The latest lawyer killed was Antonio “Pepoc” Pastor, 40, city legal officer of Laoag, who was shot dead by a lone gunman inside his private office at 11:15 a.m. of December 18 after coming from the city hall.

Overall. as shown by records of the police, the New People’s Army was kept at bay in the Ilocos Region in 2007 as in 2006.

The records further showed that insurgency was only confined in some uplands towns of Ilocos Sur and Ilocos Norte as well as in a few in western Pangasinan.

A Human Rights rally in Dagupan City sometime in July condemned the NPA for the treacherous killing of a policeman in Bugallon town and the killing of an army soldier during a military operation in Ilocos Sur.

The program of the Police Regional Office 1 is also believed to have gained ground as it successfully convinced many rebel leaders and sympathizers to surrender and lay down their arms during the year about to end. .