COTABATO CITY — A candidate for kagawad or village councilman who had been serving as an anti-crime volunteer for his neighborhood was gunned down in Pikit, Cotabato province on Wednesday, police said.
Shot in the head while buying food at a roadside store in Barangay Takepan in Pikit, Rhoyden L. Flores became the second candidate in the province to be killed in the election period for the barangay and youth polls set on October 30, according to Major Arvin John B. Cambang, Pikit police chief.
Seven days earlier, Haron S. Dimalanis, who was vying for barangay chairman in Malingao, a secluded predominantly Moro village in Midsayap, was also gunned down on a roadside eatery.
Mr. Cambang quoted homicide investigators as saying that Flores was known to be supportive of law enforcement agencies and believed to be a thorn in the flesh of people believed responsible for killing two of his relatives on separate occasions the past year. — John Felix M. Unson
