LAMITAN CITY, Basilan—A newly elected barangay chairman here was shot dead Tuesday afternoon by two motorcycle-riding men on the outskirts of his Colonia home village, police said.
Senior Insp. Gean Gallardo, Lamitan City chief of police, said Colonia barangay chief Reynaldo Trota, 43, was visiting Sitio Suyugan when the suspects, wearing helmets and camouflage uniforms, suddenly stopped beside him.
The man behind the driver fired several times at Trota and the suspects escaped.
Trota, who sustained four bullet wounds, was rushed by concerned passersby to the Lamitan District Hospital that declared him dead on arrival.
Responding policemen, who recovered spent shells of a .45-cal. pistol at the crime scene, believed that politics was behind Trota’s gunslaying.
Meanwhile, Gallardo informed the media that some local law enforcers, who are graduates of education courses, have been tapped as substitute public school teachers under the city’s “Titser Ko, Pulis Ko” program.
He said the program was initiated due to the lack of qualified substitutes when incumbent teachers go on maternity or sick leave.