BAGUIO CITY — A recent kidnapping case solved in Parañaque City in the National Capital Region (NCR) has been linked by police to political violence related to the upcoming village and youth polls in Abra.
Last Wednesday, police from the Anti-Kidnapping Group rescued public school teacher Bliss P. Loy, 46, from her abductors in Barangay Moonwalk, Parañaque.
During the investigation, it turned out that the teacher was kidnapped to force her husband, Benjamin, to withdraw his candidacy as village chief in their hometown in Bucay, Abra, and that days before her abduction their house in the province was ransacked.
Also on Wednesday, a 52-year-old candidate for barangay kagawad, Catalino Turalba, Sr., was killed by unidentified gunmen in Barangay Bangbangcag, also in Bucay. Prior to that on Oct. 9, a group of armed men shot it out with police in the same town.
To date, 122 candidates for the Oct. 30 elections have withdrawn their candidacies in Abra, with most of them from Bucay town, citing “pressure” from their rivals to back out. — Artemio A. Dumlao
