ROXAS CITY, Capiz – After condemning the brutal killing of Mambusao Vice Mayor Abel Martinez, the provincial government of Capiz, DOTC Secretary Mar Roxas and Roxas City government offered P600,000 reward money for the capture of Martinez's assassins.

Tanco and DOTC offered P500,000 reward while the city government pledged P100,000 reward.

Police are yet to arrest those responsible for the Mambusao vice mayor's killing.

Tanco, upon learning of the incident, instructed Capiz' cops to focus on the case.

Martinez was gunned down last May 4, about 6 a.m. by still unidentified riding-in-tandem assassins.

Martinez suffered five gunshot wounds, three of which were in the head and two in the chest.

Retired police Gil Lagad, one of the eye witnesses, said the incident took place meters away from the front of his gate.

According to him, he and Martinez had a brief conversation when one of the two suspects approached the vice mayor and shot him five times with a .45 caliber handgun.

Lagad said he heard a burst of fire which prompted him to take refuge.

He said he saw the suspects use a single motorcycle as getaway vehicle towards Jamindan after the incident.

Martinez was serving his second term as vice mayor in Mambusao. He was a rural health physician in Dumalag and Mambusao for several decades and was a three-time board member in the Sangguniang Panlalawigan.

Martinez was the second incumbent vice mayor killed in Capiz.

The first was Tapaz Vice Mayor Victor Gardose who was murdered last Dec. 30, 2006.

LOOSE FIREARMS

Relatedly, Chief Supt. Cipriano Querol, Jr., regional police chief, reiterated his directive to all police unit commanders to intensify the campaign against loose firearms.

"We are faced with incidents where guns are used to commit a crime, and we see this as a big challenge to strenghten our operations against loose firearms," he said.

From January 1 to April 30 this year, Police Regional Office (PRO) VI recovered 166 loose firearms out of 135 operations. Of this number, Capiz Police Provincial Office (PPO) has recovered only 14 loose firearms of the 11 operations conducted.

Negros Occidental police topped the accomplishment with the recovery of 42 loose firearms; Iloilo PPO with 34; Aklan with 20; Bacolod City PO with 18; Iloilo City PO with 15; Antique with 14; Guimaras PPO with 3; the Regional Public Safety Battalion with one; and the Regional Anti-Illegal Drugs Special Operations Group with five. *with reports from PIA and Jennifer P. Rendon