MANILA: A town mayor belonging to Philippine President Benigno Aquino’s political party has been shot dead by unidentified attackers, police said Sunday.
Raul Matamorosa, mayor of Lupi town in the eastern region of Bicol, was having a television repaired in a shop when he was shot in the head by a man accompanied by two accomplices Saturday, police said.
Matamorosa, a member of Aquino’s Liberal Party, was rushed to hospital where he later died.
Police said the motive for the killing was still unknown, although revenge killings linked to politics are common in the Philippines.
Aquino’s spokesmen were not immediately available for comment.
In April 2011 another Liberal Party member, Reynaldo Uy, a mayor in the central Philippines, was slain in an ambush. His killers remain at large.
Matamorosa’s killing came seven months before local elections, when politically related violence is expected to reach its peak.
Town mayor shot dead in Philippines
