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BACOLOD CITY: Just a day before his 50th birthday, Ajuy Vice Mayor
Ramon Rojas was gunned down at about 5 a.m. Friday while
brisk-walking at Barangay Central, Ajuy, Iloilo province.
Rojas, 49, was declared dead on arrival less
than an hour later at Sara District Hospital, succumbing to three
fatal gunshot wounds on the head, chest and abdomen.
Regional Police Director Chief Supt. Isagani
Cuevas immediately created Task Force Rojas and ordered a hot
pursuit operation against the fleeing suspects.
Cuevas, who was in Bacolod for the presidential
visit, said initial police investigation eyes political rivalry as
the motive, citing that Ajuy was a political hotspot during the last
elections.
Ironically, if the police are right, the rivalry
is within the clan, where immediate cousins belonging to the Rojas
political clan faced-off each other during the last elections.
Cuevas also said they are looking into the
possibility that the assassination may have something to do with
illegal fishing operations, Ajuy being one of the areas where
fishing is a major industry and has been a hotspot for illegal
fishing.
Iloilo Gov. Neil Tupaz also ordered the police
to resolve the case immediately.
Police reports said the victim was with Barangay
Captain Ferdinand Nacional when the incident happened. Nacional said
he saw the two gunmen on board a motorcycle approaching, one with a
handgun drawn out.
But Rojas who was texting on his mobile phone at
that time was caught unaware.
Cuevas said the police mobile group has now been
mobilized to go after the suspects, saying one of them is not
anymore on Panay Island and also eyeing the possibility that they
could have fled towards the northern part of Negros Occidental which
is just across Ajuy.
He also named Senior Supt. Ricardo de la Paz to
head the task force, adding that the Criminal Investigation and
Detection Group of Western Visayas as well as the National Bureau of
Investigation are helping in the investigation.
His three sons and a daughter survive Rojas. His
wife is said to be a practicing nurse in London.
Rojas’ political records showed he was a
former barangay youth representative, then became barangay captain
of Central. He was also a three-termer councilor before becoming a
vice-mayor and now on his second term.
Ajuy Mayor Jauncho Rojas Alvarez is a first
cousin of the victim.
-- Ma. Ester L. Espina
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