By EUGENE ADIONG
BACOLOD City — Police were yet to determine the motive behind the killing of former Sangguniang Bayan of Ilog member Edmund Turk Vail.
It is highly possible, though, that Vail was attacked by hired killers, according to Senior Supt. Milko Lirazan, police provincial director.
According to witnesses, the suspects — the gunman and the driver of the getaway motorcycle — wore no helmet or bonnet and were new faces in the town, Lirazan said.
Investigators were focusing on two angles: politics and love triangle.
Vail, 48, was shot to death while having a drinking spree with two retired engineers at a pub in Ilog on Tuesday evening.
He succumbed to six bullet wounds in the head and the body. Police said the gunman used a .45-caliber pistol.
Vail was a former three-term municipal councilor and the current president of the Magdalo party-list–Ilog Chapter.
Aside from organizing a local cooperative, he was reportedly building a lineup of candidates for the 2016 election.
Vail was actively involved in the campaign of Gov. Alfredo Marañon Jr. when the latter ran for reelection in May 2013.
Initial police investigation also showed that Vail, reportedly separated from his wife, had been involved with several other women.
Lirazan said the investigators already have leads, but he refused to elaborate.
Magdalo party-list Rep. Gary Alejano, a Negrense, said he personally knew Vail. He described the victim as a hardworking Magdalo chapter president.
“I was shocked. We were in constant contact,” Alejano said. He said Vail has not mentioned any threat to his life. He refused to speculate on the motive, saying he is leaving it for the investigators to determine.
He called on the police to decisively act on the increasing number of extrajudicial killings. “Criminality should not be tolerated,” he stressed.
Alejano said he asked Magdalo party-list members in the province to help in the probe. Justice should be given to Alejano and his family, he said./PN
