Video has shown moment unknown gunmen invaded the residential building of the sitting Governor, Roel Degamo of Negros Oriental in Central Philippines on Saturday morning.
The CCTV footage showed numbers of the gunmen entered the building while the governor was seen to be having meeting with mostly civilians.
One of the governor’s guards approached the gunmen immediately they entered the premise but he was shot when the unknown gunmen set their eyes on Governor Roel Degamo.
The unknown gunmen thereafter sprayed bullets on the people around the governor, walked out of the premise, entered their vehicle and zoomed off.
It was gathered that nine persons including the governor died in the attack while 16 others sustained injuries.
Meanwhile, President Bongbong Marcos of Philippines has condemned the assassination of Governor Roel Degamo of Negros Oriental on Saturday, March 4.
“I AM WARNING ALL THOSE INVOLVED IN THIS KILLING: YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CANNOT HIDE. WE WILL FIND YOU. IF YOU SURRENDER NOW IT WILL BE YOUR BEST OPTION”, President Bongbong said.
Degamo and several other people were shot by unknown gunmen at Degamo’s home in Pamplona, Negros Oriental, police said.
Local police said six suspects carrying rifles and dressed in uniforms similar to those worn by the armed services entered the governor’s home in Pamplona town and opened fire.
Roel Degamo, governor of Negros Oriental province, and five others were killed in the shooting, his widow said.
“Governor Degamo did not deserve that kind of death. He was serving his constituents on a Saturday,” Janice Degamo, who is also the mayor of Pamplona, said in a video posted on Facebook.
President Marcos described the Killing as the “assassination” of his political ally and warned the perpetrators to “surrender now it will be your best option”.
“My government will not rest until we have brought the perpetrators of this dastardly and heinous crime to justice,” Marcos added.
The condition of four other people who were shot in the incident was not disclosed.
The politician was distributing aid to constituents when he was shot, provincial police spokesman Kym Lopez told AFP.
Police said they were searching for 10 suspects, including the six gunmen, who fled the scene in two SUVs and a pickup truck before abandoning the vehicles in a nearby city.
Degamo, 56, is the latest target in the Philippines’ long history of attacks on politicians, and at least the third to be shot since last year’s local elections.
AFP report reads:
The Supreme Court last month declared him the rightful winner of the contest for the Negros Oriental governorship, following a recount that unseated his local rival, who had previously been proclaimed the victor.
Degamo had also campaigned for Marcos in his own candidacy for president last year.
Mamintal Adiong, governor of the southern province of Lanao del Sur, was shot and wounded in February in an attack that killed his driver and three police escorts.
That same month, the vice-mayor of the northern town of Aparri, Rommel Alameda, and five other people who were travelling with him were shot dead in a highway ambush.
In the bloodiest politically motivated ambush on record, the leaders of a powerful southern clan and about two dozen followers were sentenced to life in prison for a 2009 attack on supporters of a gubernatorial election rival in Maguindanao province.
The attack left 58 people dead, including the politician’s wife and relatives, along with 32 journalists and media workers who were covering the race.
