Cavite vice mayor eyed higher post before slay

Alexander Lubigan, Vice Mayor of Trece Martires, Cavite was eyeing a higher post and was supposed to announce this intention before he was killed.

According to an ABS-CBN report on Monday, July 9, Lubigan’s relatives and staff revealed that he had plans of running for mayor and was supposed to declare it on Monday.

However, he was gunned to death on Saturday while riding his sports utility vehicle (SUV), which makes him the third high-ranking official to be killed last week along with Tanauan, Batangas Mayor Antonio Halili and General Tinio, Nueva Ecija Mayor Ferdinand Bote.

In a GMA report also on Monday, Department of Interior and Local Government (DILG) Officer-in-Charge (OIC) Eduardo Año, former Armed Forces of the Philippines (AFP) Chief-of-Staff, said that the motive for the killings of Lubigan and Bote could be looked at a political angle.

“Yung kay Mayor Bote at Vice Mayor Lubigan malakas ‘yung motibo na maaaring political. Lalo na si Vice Mayor Lubigan na nag–announce siya na tatakbo siyang mayor sa susunod na eleksyon, and then the next day naganap itong pagpatay sa kanya (The cases of Mayor Bote and Vice Mayor Lubigan are strongly leaning on a political motive. Especially with Vice Mayor Lubigan who announced that he would run for mayor in the next election, and then the next day he was killed),” he said.

He then added, “Gayundin ‘yung kay Mayor Bote kung saan isa siya sa pinagpipiliang tatakbong gubernador (This is the same with Mayor Bote in which he is one of those being considered in a governor post) next year.”

While it is only a speculation, Año’s statement, contradicts Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief, Director General Oscar Albayalde’s earlier statement.

“These [killings] were not systematic. There is no pattern. We do not know if this involves politics. There are a lot of possible reasons,” the PNP Chief said in a press briefing on Saturday.

On a broader sense, Año in the GMA interview stressed that while 11 mayors and five vice mayors died under the stint of President Rodrigo Roa Duterte, there is still no “culture of impunity” because of different circumstances and reasons.

“Hindi natin masasabing culture of impunity kasi ito mula noong 2016 at until now, more or less ay 11 mayors at five vice mayors ‘yung napatay dito. Pero iba-iba ang dahilan. Merong personal, merong related sa drugs, merong political, at meron ding business rivalry (We cannot say that there is a culture of impunity though since 2016 until now, more or less 11 mayors and five vice mayors were killed. But there are different reasons. There are those that are personal, some are related to drugs, some are political, and there are those that related to business rivalry),” the DILG OIC added.

The Department of Justice (DOJ) has ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to probe on the recent killings.

Halili was killed during a flag-raising ceremony on July 2, while Bote was killed the day after.