The shooting incident in Silay City, which claimed the lives of two persons and injured seven others on Election Day, has not affected the conduct of the elections in Negros Occidental, Commission on Elections (Comelec) -Negros Island Region Assistant Regional Director Jossil Macute said.
“What happened in Silay has not brought any electoral concern; it’s more of a peace and order concern,” he said.
Speaking at the Regional Election Monitoring Action Center at Camp Alfredo M. Montelibano here, Macute said since the incident in Barangay Mambulac took place more than one kilometer away from the nearest polling precinct, it has not affected the voting process.
“It enhanced the police and the Philippine Army’s presence there. It even added more security to the people voting there. It has no effect on the polling precinct and even less on the other polling precincts farther from the area,” he added.
Macute said the social media posts on the incident have been hyped when in fact, many people continue to go to polling precincts.
“The police is on top of everything. They have identified the personality of the main suspect and are conducting a thorough investigation,” he said.
Macute, however, said that since the incident happened on Election Day, it will be counted as election-related violence.
“Considering that it involves political supporters of particular candidates, it will really count as election-related violence, but as to the effect on the total conduct of the elections, it has little or minimal effect at all,” he said.
Initial investigation showed that the suspect, Arnie Benedicto, village chief of Barangay Lantad, along with two unidentified men, fired their guns while passing through a political headquarters in Barangay Mambulac at around 7 a.m.
In an interview, Col. Rainerio de Chavez, police provincial director, said Benedicto had submitted himself for investigation to the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group on Monday afternoon.
He added that the Special Investigation Task Group Silay, which he heads, is pursuing a thorough investigation of the incident.
The fatalities were Albert Salimbot of Hacienda Macamig Pulo, Barangay E. Lopez, and Ronnie Piedad, 45, of Purok Ipil-ipil, Barangay Mambulac.
The wounded were Ruel Espinosa, 42; Ric Ortillano, 46; Wilfredo Cuello, 46; Glenn Gutierrez, 46; Ginray Guitche, 32; Jason Belleza, and Joey Pomares. (Nanette Guadalquiver via tvds/pna)