Ex-mayor asks poll body to declare town a ‘hot spot’

By: Mark Francisco
Gold Star Daily, Tuesday, 16^th January 2007

A former mayor in Bukidnon has asked the Commission on Elections (Comelec) to declare Damulog as an “election hot spot.”

In a news conference, former Damulog mayor Romy Tiongco made the call following the killing of Kinapat barangay chair Rogelio Estudillo Jr.
Tiongco said the killing could be politically motivated.

Tiongco did not identify a suspect but he said Estudillo had severed his ties with Mayor Fortunato Gudito and form his own group. The new group endorsed Tiongco as a mayoral candidate in the coming elections.

Tiongco could not help but break down and cry during the news conference as he recounted how Estudillo managed to convince him to seek the mayorship of Damulog when he was still alive.

“Kadto si kapitan m’o ra ‘to siya’g langaw magsige’g sunod-sunod sa ako hangtud nga nadala ra g’yud ko.” He said.

Tiongco said he now plans to challenge the re-election bid of Gudito.
Tiongco served a total of nine months as mayor of Damulog during the transitional government of then president Corazon Aquino in 1986.

Estudillo was the first elected official to be killed in the country in 2007, a midterm elections year.

The Damulog police station is pursuing two other angles in Estudillo’s death – first, that it was either a crime of passion or second, that the barangay chair was killed by a business rival.

Possibly related:

• The murder of Rogelio Bacus Estudillo, Sr.
• Goons, guns and the death of Rogelio Estudillo
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