CAGAYAN DE ORO CITY (MindaNews / 26 November) – Two Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials assigned in different towns in Mindanao were killed by still unidentified gunmen in a span of two days, officials said.
Comelec chairperson George Erwin Garcia called the deaths of Mark Orlando Vallecer II, acting election officer of Nunungan town in Lanao del Norte, and Janeco Allan Dionaldo Pandoy, assistant election officer in Isulan Sultan Kudarat, as a crime “not only against public servants but an assault to democracy itself.”
“Violence will not deter us, and those who seek to harm democracy will face the full force of the law,” Garcia said in a statement.
Major Teodorico Gallego, police chief of Salvador town in Lanao del Norte, said that two gunmen riding in tandem fired at Vallecer as his red Toyota Vios car slowed down on a rough section of a road in Barangay Curva Miagao at 2:19 p.m. on Monday.
Gallego said the victim was heading for Lala town after attending a meeting with election officials led by Lanao del Norte provincial election supervisor Joseph Hamilton Cuevas at the TESDA school building in Salvador town.
He said the victim was rushed to the Bontilao hospital in Lala town where physicians declared him dead on arrival.
In Sultan Kudarat province, President Quirino town police chief Major Joemarie Cua said Comelec election assistant officer Pandoy was riding home on his black Yamaha Mio motorcycle from a barber shop when two gunmen on a motorcycle shot him along the highway in Purok Sampaguita, Barangay Poblacion at 4:18 p.m. last Saturday.
Cua said the victim was brought to the nearby Immaculate Conception Hospital where he was declared dead on arrival.
The body of Vallecer arrived at a mortuary in Cagayan de Oro late Monday night and was tearfully met by his wife, Emily. Friends from the Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals (BCBP) were around to lend support.
Jed Lasmarias, a school mate, said Vallecer, a member of Xavier University Batch 90, had attended the school grand reunion last Saturday.
Tito Mora, another friend from BCBP, said Vallecer confided to them that he had been receiving death threats from local politicians. (Froilan Gallardo / MindaNews)
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