Police authorities on Friday arrested the two suspects in the killing of the wife of Tineg town mayor Edwin Crisologo during the 2007 election period. Former Tineg mayor Pedro Benwaren, 69 years old, and his son Tony Benwaren, 40 years old and a former rival of Crisologo in the town’s mayoral race in the 2004 elections, were arrested at around 3 a.m. on Friday at their hiding place in Barangay Santo Cristo in Capas, Tarlac. The suspects were arrested by joint elements of Task Force Abra, Capas Police Station, Criminal Investigation and Detection Group-National Capital Region and two Military Intelligence Groups. A warrant of arrest had been earlier issued for the two Benwarens for the murder of Brenda Crisologo, Mayor Crisologo’s wife. Brenda was shot dead on May 17, 2007 while watching the canvassing of votes at the Holy Spirit Academy at Bangued, Abra. (See: Wife of Abra mayor dies weeks after shooting) The suspects were escorted to Abra Provincial Police Office, to be turned over to a regional trial court for their detention at the Abra Provincial Jail. The death of Crisologo’s wife came at the height of a more recent political violence that has long wracked Tineg, the largest of Abra’s 27 towns in terms of area and consequently, the one receiving the highest internal revenue allotment. Crisologo had insisted that the murder of his wife, who sustained five gunshot wounds, was politically motivated.
He was then running for re-election against Lenin Benwaren, another son of the older Benwaren. Still another son, Clarence “Boyet" Benwaren, was likewise shot dead in 2002 while attending a church wedding in Sta. Cruz in Laguna. He was then also serving as Tineg town mayor. The Benwarens have dominated Tineg politics since the mid-1980s, until the Crisologo family challenged them and assumed the local top post since 2002. Since then, the Benwaren clan have reportedly been trying to regain leadership of the town.—Jerrie M. Abella/JV
