Mayor of Isabela City, Basilan shot dead

The mayor of Isabela City was shot dead as he was leaving his office at Isabela City Hall in Basilan before noon Friday, police said.

Mayor Luis Biel III was sitting in his car preparing to leave city hall at around 11:40 a.m. when a gunman fired at his chest, provincial police chief Supt. Abdulwahab Karimuddin said.

The bodyguards fired back to defend the mayor and killed the gunman. Biel was rushed to Infante Hospital but later died due to fatal wounds in his upper body, according to Karimuddin.

Four other people including a security escort were wounded. Three of them were identified as Abdulwahid Unda, Richard Morales and a certain Bon Acosta.

The gunman was identified as a certain Haber Gani, a graduating student of Basilan State College (BSC). He was peppered with bullets all over his body and his face was badly deformed.

Police theorized that the attack on Mayor Biel was suicide for the gunman knowing that the mayor had so many security guards.

Investigators have not yet established the motive for Biel’s assassination.But other sources are zeroing in on the possibility of the killing being linked to the controversy over the planned demolition of a Muslim mosque near the Isabela Pier, which is being opposed bitterly by the Muslims.

Hundreds of Muslims gathered at the Rizal Plaza last February 13, to protest a court’s order to demolish one of the oldest mosques in Isabela City. Marchers carried placards and chanted slogans, condemning Mayor Biel, who wanted to clean the area and replace it with commercial building.(ZS)