SLAIN MAYOR. Calbayog City Mayor Ronaldo Aquino who died in a shooting at the city’s Laboyao Bridge in Lonoy village on Monday (March 8, 2021). Officials in Samar province on Tuesday (March 9, 2021) condemned the shooting of the mayor as they called for a thorough investigation of the bloody incident. (Photo courtesy of Calbayog local government)
TACLOBAN CITY – Officials in Samar province have condemned the shooting of Calbayog City Mayor Ronald Aquino as they called on for a thorough investigation on the bloody incident.
Samar Governor Reynolds Michael Tan in a statement on Tuesday said he is supportive of the call to end the series of killings happening in the first legislative district of Samar.
“As governor of the province of Samar, I am pleading to President Rodrigo Roa Duterte to call on the Department of Justice to send their most notable investigators and make immediate and necessary crackdowns on the series of horrifying killings that have plagued Calbayog and the rest of the 1st district of Samar for years, leading up to this most unfortunate incident,” Tan stated.
The governor pointed out that even if his family and Aquino belong to rival political parties in Samar, his family appreciated the mayor when he extended his sincere condolences when Governor Milagrosa Tan died last December 2019.
“We are deeply saddened by the horrific tragedy that has befallen Mayor Aquino and his companions. We are one with the people of Calbayog in condemning this atrocity to the highest degree,” Tan added.
In a separate statement, Samar 1st District Rep. Edgar Mary Sarmiento, a political ally of the slain mayor, joined the call for the President’s intervention to bring "real justice" especially that policemen are involved in the shootout.
“As the duly elected Representative of the First District of Samar, upon the demise of Mayor Aquino, I want to assure my constituents that I will do everything possible that justice be served for Mayor Aquino, whose sole intention is to continue the prosperity and the well-being of Calbayog City,” he added.
A revised police report disclosed that while Aquino and his aides were heading north on board a white van, one of his security personnel fired at vehicles, which they allegedly thought were suspiciously tailing them.
The other vehicles carrying Philippine National Police (PNP) personnel from IMEG (integrity monitoring and enforcement group) and DEU (drug enforcement unit), then retaliated, ensuing a firefight.
The incident took place at the city’s Laboyao Bridge in Lonoy village around 5:30 p.m. on Monday.
Dead on the spot were Aquino; S/Sgt. Rodeo Balonzo, S/Sgt. Romeo Laoyon; Dennis Abayon, the mayor’s driver. Wounded were S/Sgt. Neil Cebu; Mansfield Labonite, mayor’s aide; and Clint John Paul Yauder, a local government employee.
Laoyon was in one of the vehicles reportedly tailing the mayor’s car while Balonzo, Cebu, and Labonite were in the same car with Aquino.
Yauder, whose car was just passing by but got caught in the shooting, later died while under treatment at St. Camillus Hospital in Calbayog.
The body of Capt. Joselito Tabada, chief of Samar PNP DEU and acting chief of police of nearby Gandara town, was recovered under the bridge on the same night.
Tabada was onboard a van said to be tailing the mayor's car. His death was not included in the spot report due to the late discovery of his body, police said.
The mayor and his aides were heading to their family-owned resort to attend his son’s birthday party after playing tennis when the incident occurred.
Aquino, 59, who was on his third and last term as the city's chief executive, served as mayor since 2011 after then-mayor Reynaldo Uy was killed in a fiesta celebration in Hinabangan, Samar. The incident remained unsolved.
Meanwhile, Calbayog Bishop Isabelo Abarquez also called on authorities to thoroughly investigate the incident.
"The right of life is a gift from everybody and no one has the right to take it. The wheel of justice is the proper venue for resolution of any case,” Abarquez said in a statement.
Abarquez also condoled with the families of the victims and offered prayers for them.
“We share the grief of the Aquino family, the families of the driver and the bodyguard, offering them our condolences and prayers for the eternal repose of their souls of their loved one and for comfort in their bereavement,” he added. (with reports from Bong Patinio/PNA)
