THE remains of a former mayor killed in an ambush in Iloilo City last week is expected to arrive in Bacolod City at 2 p.m. Monday.
The body of former mayor Luis Mondia III will be brought to the Rolling Hills Funeral Chapel before being buried in Bacolod City on February 28, said a female relative who declined to be identified.
The police in Western Visayas has provided security for the transfer of the remains to Bacolod City.
Mondia, a former Pulupandan mayor seeking to regain his seat against incumbent mayor Magdaleno Peña, was gunned down by one of the two suspects in the presence of his wife, Evelinda, and their seven-year-old grandson outside the Jaro Cathedral in Iloilo City last week.
The family initially planned to bury the slain former official in his hometown in Pulupandan but they had changed the plan due to brewing political tension in the municipality.
On Sunday night, some of Mondia’s loyal supporters in Pulupandan reported that they had been harassed by supporters of the incumbent mayor. Some residents along coastal communities and in Calle Montilla complained that their houses had been ransacked.
Peña, who earlier denied responsibility in the killing of his political rival, could not be reached for comment Sunday night.
Mondia filed his Certificate of Candidacy (COC) on November 30 last year to run against Peña, who defeated his brother, Samson, for mayorship in 2007.
His sister, Gina Mondia Villanueva, also filed her (COC) to run for vice mayor against Peña’s brother-in-law, incumbent Vice Mayor Antonio Suatengco.
Meanwhile, an arrest warrant has been issued for the two assassins of Mondia, said Western Visayas regional police director Isagani Cuevas.
Cuevas said the suspects are members of a gun-for-hire group operating in Western Visayas. The two suspects were identified by a pedicab driver who witnessed the killing.
The National Bureau of Investigation has been tapped for the cartographic sketch of the suspects.