Comelec officer killed after shot in Intramuros

By Ronron
March 24, 2008

An official of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) was killed in a shooting incident Monday noon in Intramuros, Manila City perpetrated by two suspects, police said.

SPO2 Renato Garay of the Manila Police District (MPD) Station 5 said Director Wynne Asdala, 55, acting chief of the Comelec Law Department, expired at the Manila Doctor’s Hospital while undergoing operation.

Asdala was shot at around 12:40 pm at the corner of A. Soriano Avenue and Cabildo Streets while walking towards the Palacio del Gobernador, which houses the Comelec office.

Garay said Asdala had just taken his lunch then when two male persons aboard a red motorcycle approached him and fired once at close range, hitting him on his upper left chest, near his shoulder.

“I think it was close to his heart,” Garay, speaking in Filipino, described Asdala’s lone gunshot wound.

Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento said Asdala expired sometime between 2:30 and 3pm.

Sarmiento and Garay said they are not yet still sure of the motive of the attack, although they are not discounting the possibility of it being work-related.

Sarmiento said they cannot hide the fact that the murder of Asdala causes alarm among Comelec officials and employees since it happened just a few months after former Law Department head Director Alioden Dalaig suffered the same fate.

“It is, so we are telling our people to take precautionary measures,” Sarmiento said when asked if the latest incident is already alarming them./DMS