Sunday, June 24, 2007 Cop chief orders manhunt of vice mayor's killers
CAMP FLORENDO, San Fernando City, La Union -- A region-wide manhunt operation was ordered on Friday against the killers of outgoing Vice Mayor Bonifacio Apilado of San Manuel, Pangasinan, who was ambushed along with his driver-bodyguard along Maharlika Highway in Barangay San Vicente, Urdaneta City on Thursday.
According to Chief Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil, director of Police Regional Office (PRO) 1, he ordered the manhunt after teams from the Provincial Police Mobile Group of Pangasinan were also deployed in San Manuel to augment the police force of the said town.
An initial report from PRO-1 disclosed that Apilado and his aide Ricardo Clemente, 24, married, who was also a resident of Gueset Sur in same town, were shot by three still unidentified assailants last Thursday, who fled on board a motorcycle.
Apilado sustained gunshot wounds on his head, chest and left thigh and subsequently died at around 3:30 p.m. while undergoing medical treatment in the hospital.
Clemente, on the other hand, was seriously injured and confined in the same hospital under heavy police security afterwards.
Bataoil said that appropriate security measures have also been employed in the premises where the remains of the slain vice mayor was laid.
Meanwhile, Bataoil said that a conference was presided over by Senior Superintendent Isagani Nerez, director of the Pangasinan Provincial Police Office, to establish leads that would help in the investigation of the case. (ENO)
