Dec 29, 2009
LAOAG (Philippines) - A LOCAL politician was killed when gunmen ambushed a convoy carrying about 50 people in the Philippines on Monday, police said, echoing a horrific election-linked massacre last month. Six other people travelling in the convoy, including two village officials and a police escort, were wounded, Ilocos Norte province police director Senior Superintendent Benjamin Lusad said. Four hooded men ambushed the convoy, which was carrying candidates and supporters of the opposition Nationalista Party just outside Dingras town in Ilocos Norte, according to Superintendent Lusad. Mr Joen Caniete, a village chairman who was running for a seat on the Dingras town council in next year's national elections, was riddled with bullets and died immediately, Superintendent Lusad said. The attack came barely a month after armed followers of a powerful political clan stopped a convoy of people in the southern Philippines and murdered 57 of them. The dead included relatives of a rival politician to the clan, plus journalists and lawyers. That attack was carried out allegedly to prevent the rival from running against one of the clan members. Superintendent Lusad said it was too early to conclude that the ambush in Ilocos Norte, in the northern Philippines, was politically motivated. 'We are looking at so many angles,' he said without elaborating. -- AFP
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