By DANNY O. SAGUN

SAN FABIAN - A barangay captain who ran for mayor in the last local elections was abducted Tuesday morning by unidentified armed men on a road leading to the Philippine Tourism Authority resort in barangay Bolasi at around 8 a. m..

In a radio interview, police provincial director Sr. Supt. Isagani Nerez noted that oddly, Villegas had no bodyguards when his kidnappers flagged down his Nissan Terano and dragged him onto a waiting vehicle.

Villegas, a very controversial figure among law enforcement agencies, was known to move around with several bodyguards in tow.

Reports said he was in the area to check an ongoing construction of a beach resort he was building.

Authorities are looking into some possible angles - Villegas’ involvement in shady transactions, quarry boundary disputes or financial obligations. Politics as a motive may be remote but investigators are not discounting it, Nerez said.

Villegas is now on his second term as barangay chair of Anonang. He was the municipal Liga head in his first term. He ran against re-electionist Mayor Mohamito Libunao but lost.

His elder brother Liberato, an incumbent provincial board member of Pangasinan, who had recently denounced some illegal “skimming” of quarry operations fees due the province, has himself been receiving death threats also.